HV 8358 
.07 
1919 
Copy 1 



COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 



REPORT 



OF THE 



COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE 
PENAL SYSTEMS 



FLETCHER W. ST1TES. Chairman 
ALFRED E. JONES ALBERT H. VOTAW 

LOUIS N. ROBINSON MARTHA P. FALCONER 



PHILADELPHIA 

PENNSYLVANIA 
1919 



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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



REPORT OF COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE PENAL 

SYSTEMS. 

To the General Assembly: 

Your Commission duly appointed pursuant to Act of the 
Legislature, No. 409, 191 7, "to investigate the prison systems 
and the organization and management of correctional institu- 
tions within this Commonwealth and elsewhere; to recommend 
such revision of the existing prison system within this Com- 
monwealth, and the laws pertaining to the establishment, main- 
tenance and regulation of State and County correctional insti- 
tutions within this Commonwealth as it shall deem wise, and 
to report the same to the General Assembly at the session of 
1919," respectfully submits the following report of its pro- 
ceedings, together with its conclusions and recommendations 
and proposed bills for carrying the same into effect. 

The Commission was constituted as follows: 

Fletcher W. Stites, Narberth, Chairman, 
Alfred E. Jones, Uniontown, 
Mrs. Martha P. Falconer, Darling P. O., 
Louis N. Robinson, Swarthmore, 
Albert H. Votaw, Philadelphia. 

On November 1, 191 7, the members of the Commission met 
in the City of Philadelphia, for the purpose of organization 
and assigned the work of investigation which had been com- 
mitted to it to the several members thereof. On July 1, 1918, 
the Commission retained Dr. George W. Kirchwey, of New 
York City, as its counsel to direct the subsequent course of the 
investigation and to aid the Commission with his counsel and 
advice. 



2 Report of Penal Commission 

I. 

Scope of Investigation. 

The Commission was fortunate in having in its personnel as 
thus constituted four members, including its counsel, who had 
through long experience and previous investigations acquired 
considerable information as to penal institutions and their man- 
agement in this and other States. The investigation covered : — 

(i) A careful study and analysis of the laws governing penal 
conditions and institutions in this Commonwealth; 

(2) An examination of the six correctional institutions di- 
rectly controlled by the State, namely: 

The Eastern Penitentiary, at Philadelphia; 
The Western Penitentiary, at Pittsburgh; 
The New Central Penitentiary, at Belief onte; 
The State Industrial Reformatory, at Huntingdon; 
The Pennsylvania Training School, at Morganza; 
The State Industrial Home for Women, at Muncy; 

(3) A similar examination of the Glen Mills Schools — the 
Girls' Department, Sleighton Farms, at Darlington, and the 
Boys' Department at Glen Mills; 

(4) A similar examination of the Philadelphia House of 
Correction and of the County Convict Prison at Holmesburg, 
Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia, the Allegheny County 
Workhouse at Hoboken and many other county institutions; 

(5) A study of the constitution, organization and functions 
of the State Board of Public Charities, and specifically of those 
of its Committee on Lunacy; 

(6) A study of the powers and activities of the Prison 
Labor Commission instituted under the Act of June 1, 1918; 



*„ Of De 

.'•Air 14 1919 



Report of Penal Commission 3 

(7) A careful survey of the entire history of the penal sys- 
tem of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from the colonial 
period down to the present time, based on the historical re- 
search of Professor Harry E. Barnes of Clark University, 
Massachusetts; 

(8) 'An investigation of significant correctional institutions 
in several other States, notably in New York, New Jersey and 
Ohio. 

To supplement and enlarge the range of these inquiries and 
studies, the Commission was permitted to avail itself of the re- 
sults of previous investigations conducted by two of its mem- 
bers; on the Employment and Compensation of Prisoners in 
Pennsylvania, by Professor Louis N. Robinson, as Secretary 
of the Penal Commission of 1913-1915, and on the county 
jails and workhouses, made periodically from 19 14 to 191 8 by 
Albert H. Votaw, as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Prison 
Society. 

The Commission desires to express its sense of deep obliga- 
tion to the officials and inspectors of prisons in this Common- 
wealth for the courtesy and hospitality extended to its mem- 
bers in the course of their investigations. It also acknowledges 
its indebtedness to the Secretary and members of the Board of 
Public Charities and to the Secretary of the Public Charities 
Association for their helpful co-operation. 

The Commission has heretofore submitted to the Governor 
two preliminary reports, one a Special Emergency Report on 
Prison Labor, bearing date September 1, 191 8, and a special 
report on the State Industrial Home for Women, under date 
of September 15, 1918, both of which are hereto appended. 

While both these reports were called out by war emergen- 
cies, the former by the dearth of labor power to man the war 
industries of the Commonwealth, the latter by the need of pro- 
viding a place for the detention and treatment of the large 
number of dissolute women convicted of offenses against Fed- 



4 Report of Penal Commission 

eral and State laws enacted for the protection of the soldiers 
in the training camps — the Commission believes that they are 
still pertinent and that the recommendations which they con- 
tain should form a part of any constructive scheme for the im- 
provement of the penal system of the Commonwealth. 

II. 

Development of Penal System of Pennsylvania. 

The most inspiring and significant chapter in the history of 
penology is not the achievement of John Howard in redeeming 
the common gaols of England from the degradation into which 
they had fallen, nor of Lord Romilly in his lifelong struggle 
against the barbarities of the English penal laws, but the leader- 
ship which for more than a century the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania gave to the world both in prison reform and in 
the amelioration of the penal code. The two former were 
the revolt of sensitive and humane natures against hoary abuses ; 
but the latter was all this and something more. It was a bold 
and imaginative reconstruction of the whole basis of penal dis- 
cipline. As far back as the last quarter of the seventeenth 
century the Quaker colonists of Pennsylvania introduced for 
the first time the practice of employing imprisonment at hard 
labor as the ordinary method of punishing anti-social action. 
After the reversion of the American colonies for fifty years to 
the barbarous criminal jurisprudence of the mother country, 
Pennsylvania was the first State, the first community in the 
world, to break with this system and to substitute imprisonment 
for the various brutal and degrading types of corporal punish- 
ment. The Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, in 1790, was 
the earliest institution in America in which these more enlight- 
ened principles were put into practice. From this second begin- 
ning, for a period of forty years, Pennsylvania was elaborating 
and perfecting the first of the two great systems of penal ad- 
ministration which were destined to dominate the penology of 



Report of Penal Commission 5 

the civilized world during the ninetenth century — the separate 
confinement of malefactors. Visited, admired and imitated 
by large numbers of eminent and enthusiastic European penol- 
ogists, the Eastern Penitentiary at Cherry Hill was the pivotal 
point linking American and European penology for more than a 
generation after 1830. 

Then followed that long period of inertia, of lassitude, of 
marking time, which is so apt to succeed to a period of ardent 
reforming energy and which to this very day has maintained its 
spell over the State and the Nation. 

Not that there have not in the last half century been notable 
improvements in the theory and practice of penal administra- 
tion, some of them bold enough to bring America from time to 
time into the forefront of interest and example to the penolo- 
gists of the Old World, but in most of these the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania has been content to play a secondary role. 
Throughout this era of slackened energy she has not cared or 
dared to initiate, to lead, to "carry on," but has followed be- 
latedly and afar off the progress of other States. Examples of 
this are the Auburn congregate system, which divided with the 
Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement the interest of 
European as well as of American penologists, and which was 
adopted in the Western Penitentiary in 1869, a Ml generation 
after its establishment in New York State, and which has only 
recently conquered the parent institution on Cherry Hill; the 
justly famous Elmira experiment of progressive classification 
and industrial training of inmates embodied in the Huntingdon 
Reformatory in 1889, and the long-promised reformatory for 
women at Muncy, which six years after its creation by legis- 
lative action, has not yet been rendered available for the pur- 
pose for which it was designed. 

The first step in the development of an intelligent conception 
of delinquency and its treatment came not in an accurate con- 
ception of the nature of crime and its causes, but in a clearer 
and more correct notion of the function of punishment. By 



6 Report of Penal Commission 

1790 the element of deterrence in punishment was recognized 
and emphasized. The element of reformation was a cardinal 
point in the theory and practice of the Philadelphia Society for 
Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, and this Society did 
its best to infuse this doctrine into the Pennsylvania system of 
prison administration. Before 1830 it was very generally as- 
serted that reformation, as well as deterrence and social revenge, 
was to be regarded as a chief aim of punishment, though the 
offender was still regarded as an unregenerate free moral agent. 

This theory of crime received a severe shock in the "forties" 
from the investigations of Dorothea L. Dix and others, who 
showed the great prevalence of insanity and idiocy among the 
delinquent classes. It could scarcely be denied even by the tra- 
ditional jurists that the exercise of free w T ill was likely to be 
seriously impeded by insanity or feeble-mindedness. From i860 
to the beginning of the present century the most notable ad- 
vances toward a more intelligent conception of crime and its 
treatment consisted in the gradual but definite triumph of the 
notion of detention and punishment as agencies for reforma- 
tion rather than as instruments of social revenge. 

For more than a century of its history the penal, reforma- 
tory and correctional institutions of Pennsylvania were limited 
to the county jails and the few and scattered workhouses, which 
were erected mainly in conjunction with the almshouses. In 
the jails there could be no approach to anything like a differen- 
tiated treatment of delinquents. In them were herded promis- 
cuously those imprisoned for debt, those convicted of crime and 
those accused or held as witnesses; those of all ages and both 
sexes; those convicted of all categories and grades of crime 
punishable by imprisonment; those of all mental states — normal, 
feeble-minded, neurotic, psychotic, epileptic. The few colonial 
workhouses were employed as little more than an agency for 
suppressing vagrancy. 

The first step in a differentiated treatment of crime and crim- 
inals came with the erection of a semi-state prison in the Walnut 



Report of Penal Commission y 

Street Jail in 1789-90. This provided for a partial differentia- 
tion between those convicted of the more serious crimes and 
those convicted of petty offenses or awaiting trial. It did not 
however, attempt any scientific differentiation on the basis of 
age, sex or mental state. Children and adults, male and female, 
sane and insane, were confined in contiguity. The opening of 
the State penitentiaries at Allegheny and Philadelphia in 1826 
and 1829, with their fundamental principle of solitary confine- 
ment, carried further the process of differentiation, but still con- 
tinued to apply the same general type of treatment to all incar- 
cerated inmates. It was a system of separation rather than of 
a differentiated treatment of special types of prisoners. 

The second important development in the direction of spe- 
cialization in the provision of institutional treatment of delin- 
quents appeared in the establishment of a House of Refuge 
for juvenile delinquents in Philadelphia in 1828. Though this 
was at first a private rather than a State institution and was of 
very limited capacity, it marked an epoch in the progress of 
Pennsylvania penology by making possible some elementary 
differentiation on the basis of age, degree of criminality and 
relative susceptibility to reformation. The next attempt at fur- 
ther differentiation came with the erection of the State Hospital 
for the Insane at Harrisburg between 1841 and 1851, chiefly 
as a result of the agitation initiated by Dorothea L. Dix. This 
and the other State hospitals for the insane, subsequently 
erected, provided for a treatment of the more important types 
of mental disorder, though no adequate provision was made for 
removing the insane from the prison. Not until 1905 was an 
act passed providing for the erection of a State hospital for the 
criminal insane at Fairview which was opened in 191 2. 

During the quarter of a century following 1850 there was 
an active agitation to provide a means of differentiating the 
treatment of criminals on the basis of age, sex and degree of 
criminality. The first important achievement in this direction 
was the further development of reform schools for juvenile 



8 Report of Penal Commission 

delinquents through the removal and enlargement of the Phila- 
delphia House of Refuge in 1850-54 and the erection of the 
Western House of Refuge at Allegheny during the same period. 
Juvenile delinquents, if petty offenders, could thereafter be re- 
moved from their degrading confinement in the State prison or 
worse county jails and receive the properly specialized treat- 
ment which their circumstances demanded. No provision for 
the differentiated treatment of the less definite and confirmed 
types of adult delinquents was made until the opening of the 
reformatory for men at Huntingdon in 1889 and the authori- 
zation of the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy in 
191 3. The provision of reformatories and juvenile correctional 
institutions marked a double process of differentiation, in that 
these institutions not only called for a diversity of treatment 
according to age, sex and degree of criminality, but also from 
the fact that they were clearly differentiated from the State 
prisons and the county jails in making reformation rather than 
punishment or detention their chief aims. 

Along with this development of a properly differentiated sys- 
tem of treating the delinquent population, has gone the growth 
of specialized institutions for dealing with the closely related 
class of defectives, which was once treated indiscriminately 
along with the delinquent classes when its members were guilty 
of criminal action. The State institution for feeble-minded at 
Polk, opened in 1893, and at Spring City, provided by an act 
of 1903, and the State Village for Feeble-minded Women at 
Laurelton, not yet available for use, are designed to furnish sci- 
entific treatment for large numbers of those who would today 
be confined in the State prisons or county jails, if the ideas 
and institutions of 1840 prevailed. Even an institution for 
inebriates was contemplated in an act of 1913. 

But this vital and all important process of the differentiation, 
classification and specialized treatment of the delinquent and de- 
fective classes has now proceeded far beyond that most ele- 
mentary stage of furnishing separate institutions for dealing 



Report of Penal Commission 9 

with the most general classes of delinquents and defectives. It 
has been found that the terms defective, insane and criminal 
have only a legal significance and are practically useless when 
involving the problem of exact scientific analysis and treatment. 
Each general class of delinquent boys, of defective girls or of 
criminal adults, for instance, is made up of distinguishable and 
distinct types which demand specialized treatment in the same 
way that it is required for one general class as distinguished 
from another. Though it is as yet very imperfectly developed, 
the present tendency is for each institution to differentiate into 
a number of specialized departments, each designed to provide 
the proper treatment for one of these types. 

Finally, within the last decade beginnings have been made in 
what is likely to be an important future development, namely 
the non-institutional care of the less pronounced and confirmed 
types of delinquents, particularly of delinquent minors. The 
developments along this line have, up to the present, consisted 
chiefly in the adoption of parole systems in all the State penal, 
reformatory and correctional institutions and in a more liberal 
use of the suspended sentence and probation. The recently es- 
tablished Municipal Probation Court of Philadelphia is a pioneer 
in Pennsylvania in this promising new development in the pre- 
ventive treatment of the less confirmed type of delinquents. 

Looking at the whole matter as it stands today, it cannot be 
said that conditions in Pennsylvania are in any material respect 
either better or worse than in other progressive States, except 
in the one matter of the useful employment of the convict pop- 
ulation. Here, as elsewhere, some lucky chance has placed a 
man or a woman of exceptional qualifications at the head of 
an institution, one who has by his strong personal initiative 
made the best of a bad situation, as in the case of the Eastern 
Penitentiary, or who has, with something akin to genius, seized 
upon a new opportunity, as in the case of the Girls' School at 
Darlington and the new Penitentiary foundation at Bellefonte. 
But these are sporadic and exceptional developments and have 



io Report of Penal Commission 

furnished no new principle of a revolutionary character to mark 
the dawn of a new era in penal administration. 

Meanwhile the hopeless and demoralizing idleness to which 
most of the inmates of the Eastern Penitentiary and of most of 
the county institutions of the Commonwealth are doomed, is a 
spectacle in which the people of Pennsylvania can take nothing 
but shame. But even if this is remedied, as it should be at once 
by drastic legislative action, Pennsylvania will have done no 
more than reach the level of penological theory of the Quaker 
innovators of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 
step is an imperative one, but it will not restore to the Com- 
monwealth the proud position of leadership which once was 
hers, which is still, by virtue of past achievements and by com- 
mon fame, attributed to her. 

While we have thus been dreaming, tardily and ineffectually 
putting into effect the aspirations of a long-distant past, a new 
penology has come into being, based not on humanitarian senti- 
ment or on "the common sense of most," but on the scientific 
study of the delinquent and his environment. New sciences of 
psychology, psychiatry and sociology have been forged to meet 
the conditions of the new day and these have furnished us with 
a new basis for penological experimentation. We have learned 
that the criminal is not merely a person who has in the exercise 
of an unfettered will chosen the evil rather than the good, but 
a person of complex personality shaped by heredity and environ- 
ment to what he is, none the less a menace to society than the 
older conception made him, not the less requiring restraint and 
correction, but demanding and deserving individual treatment 
according to the nature which has been developed in him. We 
have learned from recent scientific study of the most rigorous 
and trustworthy sort that from 50 to 60 per cent, of the in- 
mates of our correctional institutions are abnormal — feeble- 
minded, insane, psychopathic — to the point of irresponsibility, 
to all intents and purposes the same kind of people that fill our 
hospitals for the insane and institutions for the feeble-minded. 
We have also learned, from sociological case studies, that a very 



Report of Penal Commission n 

large proportion of those that the psychiatrist would class as 
normal are the victims of neglected childhood and of the de- 
praving influences of the institutions in which they have spent 
a great part of their young lives. 

It seems clear that this new knowledge makes for a new clas- 
sification, based not, like that of the Elmira system, on be- 
havior in confinement, nor, like that of the current penology, on 
the character of the crime committed, but on the exact study 
of the individual and that the treatment accorded him must be 
adapted to the results of such study. 

Here, then, is the new opportunity for a further advance out 
of this slough of despond — an opportunity not inferior to that 
which this Commonwealth so superbly grasped in its heroic 
youth — to bring its penal administration into conformity with 
the newer conceptions of delinquency. Tinkering the old ma- 
chine is not enough. It must be remodeled altogether. Add- 
ing to the powers of a board of inspectors here, curbing them 
there, setting up new boards and commissions to direct the 
doing of this, to restrain the doing of that — all these are but 
a part of the old game, which will after all continue to be 
played in very much the old perfunctory way. What is de- 
manded is a genuine reconstruction of the penal system of the 
Commonwealth, one which shall, with as little disturbance to 
the existing management of the several institutions as possible, 
put at their service all the resources of the new knowledge of 
crime and its treatment. It is the purpose of this report to 
suggest the lines of this future development of our penal system. 

III. 

General Characteristics of Present Penal System. 

As the foregoing outline indicates, the several State institu- 
tions of a penal, correctional and reformatory character, with 
the two Glen Mills Schools (which, though largely under pri- 
vate management, are essentially public institutions) have been 



12 Report of Penal Commission 

developed at different times, under the influence of changing 
conceptions of social responsibility for different types of of- 
fenders. As a result of this circumstance each is separately 
managed by a board of inspectors or managers, which exercises 
complete control over the policy of the institution to which its 
authority extends. This Board appoints the Warden or Super- 
intendent, fixes his or her compensation, determines the indus- 
trial and educational policy of the institution and, under the 
authority of the Legislature, disburses the funds appropriated 
for its maintenance. The disciplinary policy of the institution 
is almost invariably entrusted to the Warden or Superintendent 
and, as is natural, if that official happens to be a person of 
strong individuality and initiative, his policy in practice, if "not 
in theory, governs the entire administration. Nowhere is there 
a centralized authority exercising a general control of an ef- 
fective influence. The only approach to such a general agency 
is the State Board of Public Charities, which may investigate 
and require the submission of an annual report, and the Prison 
Labor Commission, which exercises a general supervision over 
the industries of the two penitentiaries and the Huntingdon 
Reformatory, but which has no effective power to carry its plans 
into execution. There is, accordingly, no uniform policy even 
in the case of institutions like the two Glen Mills schools, which 
have a similar type of inmates and an identical aim, nor in the 
case of all the institutions under consideration in matters where 
their problems and needs are the same. That there are advan- 
tages in this policy of separate control cannot be denied. It 
gives to an energetic and progressive superintendent or board 
of managers a degree of initiative in reform and experimenta- 
tion, which, under a highly centralized control of all the insti- 
tutions, it would be difficult to secure. On the other hand it 
may have the effect of depriving the individual institution, be- 
cause of its poverty or because of the reactionary character of 
its administration, of the benefits of an advance which may 
have been made elsewhere. There could not be a better illus- 
tration of the unevenness of development resulting from this 



Report of Penal Commission 13 

lack of co-operation in the Pennsylvania prison system than 
the fact that the Eastern Penitentiary was compelled to wait 
for the initiative of its present Warden for the partial adoption 
of the congregate system, which had for forty years existed in 
the Western Penitentiary, and which had everywhere demon- 
strated its superiority over the system of solitary confinement. 
Upon the whole, however, what strikes the thoughtful ob- 
server is not the diversity of policy and management among 
these institutions, even where they have avowedly different aims, 
but their conformity to a common type, and that the prison type. 
With only two exceptions — Sleighton Farms and the Training 
School at Morganza — the persistent shadow of the Penitentiary 
rests upon them all. It is true that in the new Central Peni- 
tentiary on its broad acreage at Belle fonte and in the Eastern 
Penitentiary, so far as the physical and industrial conditions 
render possible, the shadow has been lifted, but it is safe to 
say of the penal system of the State as a whole, that it is still 
too much dominated by the ancient ideal of demonstrating to 
the inmates that "the way of the transgressor is hard." Even 
in institutions of a purely reformatory character, while they 
leave little to be desired in the way of healthful conditions of 
living, orderly administration and educational opportunities, the 
reformation of the wrong-doer is still too much sought through 
a system of stern repression, of "iron discipline" — a system 
which, as all experience shows, defeats its end by crushing out 
the finer elements of character on which the redemption of the 
individual must depend. An almost invariable incident of this 
type of disciplinary control is the persistence of the policy of 
securing good conduct through punishment — often severe pun- 
ishment for trivial offenses — rather than by the more enlight- 
ened and humane method of holding out incentives to good 
behavior, either by the grant of special privileges or by putting 
on the inmates themselves the responsibility for the good 
behavior of all. 

Other instances of the persistence of the traditional attitude 
toward the offender are the almost complete lack throughout 



14 Report of Penal Commission 

our penal system of a scientific, balanced ration, such as has in 
the experience of prison administrators in other States, as 
notably at Sing Sing Prison in 1916, and more recently in our 
army camps, demonstrated the value both for health and ef- 
ficiency and from the point of view of economy of a scientific 
management of the problem of food supply for large masses of 
men ; the general indifference to outdoor recreation and exercise, 
so essential to the health and morale of the inmate body; the 
meagre provision for any education worthy of the name; the 
all but complete lack of comprehensive and well rounded systems 
of vocational or industrial training, on which the efficiency of 
prison labor and the ability of the inmates to "make good" in 
the world of industry after their release so largely depends; the 
demoralizing idleness which is still after three decades of effort 
the most marked characteristic of our prison system; and, 
finally, the insufficient care for the physical and mental health 
of the inmates of our correctional institutions, which still for 
the most part mingle indiscriminately together the tuberculous 
and syphilitic with those who are sound in body and the insane, 
psychopathic and defective with those who are sound in mind. 

Many of these conditions which continue to put the brand 
of the prison on the inmates of our correctional institutions are 
doubtless due to the survival of the Bastille type of prison archi- 
tecture, which is exemplified in the Eastern and Western Peni- 
tentiaries and in such structures as Moyamensing Prison in 
Philadelphia, the Convict Prison at Holmesburg, the Philadel- 
phia House of Correction and many others. It is scarcely too 
much to say that no human being is vile enough to deserve con- 
finement in such a place or dangerous enough to need it. Even 
the most unbending of the old type of prison official will con- 
cede that 80 per cent, of the inmates neither need nor deserve 
to be confined behind triple bars of steel or in cells like cata- 
combs or within walls like those of Egyptian tombs. Keepers 
and inmates alike lose half their humanity by confinement in 
these grim and forbidding structures. No reforming influence 



Report of Penal Commission 15 

however humane and generous, can long survive in their atmos- 
phere. 

Public opinion is at last moving away from this antiquated 
type of prison architecture to the newer type represented in 
the honor prison at New Hampton Farms in New York and 
in our Commonwealth in the cottage colonies at Sleighton 
Farms, Glen Mills, Morganza, and Muncy. The change which 
comes over the men who are transferred from the Western 
Penitentiary to the new prison site in Centre County is a suffi- 
cient commentary on the older type of prison, and demon- 
strates beyond perad venture the duty of affording to all of our 
convict population a similar life of freedom and opportunity. 
This result, so desirable from every point of view, could in 
large measure be attained in a short time by equipping the 
Eastern Penitentiary with a suitable area of farm land in the 
Eastern Section of the State and by making immediate pro- 
vision for the institution of State industrial farms for the 
convicts confined in the county prisons, as is recommended 
elswhere in this report. 

IV. 

Prison Labor. 

The conditions existing in the penal institutions of the Com- 
monwealth with respect to the employment of the inmates in 
useful industry have been so fully set forth in the Emergency 
Report submitted by the Commission to the Governor in Sep- 
tember last (a copy of which is annexed to this report) and in 
the comprehensive study of the problem by the Penal Com- 
mission of 1913-1915 (submitted to the General Assembly 
under date of February 15, 1915) that it is not deemed neces- 
sary to go into the matter at length in this place. It suffices 
to call attention to the fact that the conditions described in 
those reports have not in any material respect been improved. 
Of approximately 10,000 inmates in the penal and correctional 



1 6 Report of Penal Commission 

institutions of the State, less than one-half are usefully em- 
ployed, not more than one-fourth in productive labor. The 
economic waste of such a system extended over a century is 
scarcely less appalling than its inhumanity. By the law a large 
part of this interminable procession of offending and suffering 
humanity has been condemned to hard labor. In actual prac- 
tice nearly all of it has been doomed to wasteful and demoral- 
izing idleness. 

The law of June i, 191 5, "providing a system of employ- 
ment and compensation for the inmates of the Eastern Peni- 
tentiary, Western Penitentiary and the Pennsylvania Industrial 
Reformatory at Huntingdon" and creating a Prison Labor 
Commission to carry its provisions into effect, has proved 
almost wholly inoperative, owing primarily to the failure of 
the Legislature to provide for the compulsory purchase of 
prison-made goods by the Commonwealth or the political 
divisions thereof or by public institutions. As a consequence, 
out of a total population of 3200 in the three institutions to 
which the authority of the Commission extends, at the close of 
the year 19 18 only 169 were employed under the direction of 
the Commission. These were distributed as follows: — 

Eastern Penitentiary, population 1 ^7 1 

Caning chairs 16 

Cigarmaking 1 1 

Shoemaking 42 

Knitting hosiery 38 

107 

Absolutely idle 839 

Western Penitentiary, population 720 

Broommaking 10 

Brushmaking 2 

Weaving 18 

30 

Absolutely idle 393 



Report of Penal Commission ly 

Huntingdon Reformatory, population. . . 579 
Auto-tagmaking 32 

Whether considered as a relief from the crushing burden of 
expense that our penal establishments entail, or as a remedy for 
the physical and moral degeneration resulting from enforced 
idleness, or as a means to equip the inmates for lives of in- 
dustry and usefulness after their release, a system of prison 
labor which produces the results set forth in these figures 
stands self condemned. 

To make the plan embodied in the law of 191 5 effective, it 
should further provide: 

(1) That municipalities as well as the Commonwealth and 
the political divisions thereof and all public institutions shall 
be required, as far as may be practicable, to supply their needs 
from the labor of the penal and correctional institutions; 

(2) That the authority of the Commission or of any body 
in which its powers may be vested shall extend to the reform- 
atory institutions at Darlington, Glen Mills, Morganza and 
Muncy and to all State, county and municipal institutions of a 
penal or correctional character; 

(3) That the power of such Commission or body to regu- 
late prison industry be extended to all forms of labor activity 
of the inmates of such institutions, including farming, road- 
making, land reclamation, forestry, etc. ; 

(4) That such Commission or body be empowered to deter- 
mine the compensation of prisoners for industrial and other 
work performed by them and the method of applying such 
compensation to the use of such prisoners or their dependents; 

(5) That the strict "State use" plan be modified by permit- 
ting the sale in the open market, at not less than the market 
price, of any surplus product resulting from the labor of the 



1 8 Report of Penal Commission 

inmates over and above the product disposed of as provided 
in the act. 

V. 

The County Prisons. 

In Pennsylvania, as in most, if not all, of the other States of 
the Union, the county jail is the despair of those who look for 
a better day in the treatment of the wrong-doer. The admira- 
tion which our experiments in the reformatory treatment of 
the young have excited in eminent foreign penologists has 
turned to loathing when their attention was directed to the 
county jails. Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, the distinguished 
head of the English prison system, in an article published a 
few months after his visit to this country in 191 o, described 
them in the following terms: 

"In these gaols it is hardly too much to say that many 
of the features linger which called forth the wrath and 
indignation of the great Howard at the end of the eight- 
eenth century. Promiscuity, unsanitary conditions, absence 
of supervision, idleness and corruption — these remain the 
features in many places. Even the 'fee' system is still in 
vogue. The gaolers are still paid by fees for the support 
of prisoners, and commitments to gaol are common when 
some other disposition of the case would have been im- 
posed had not the commitment yielded a fee to the sheriff, 
who is usually in charge of the gaol. In many gaols there 
are not facilities for medical examination on reception 
for ventilation, for exercise, or for bathing. * * * 
The foreign delegates were amazed at this startling incon- 
sistency between the management of the common gaols and 
that of the State prisons and State reformatories. The 
evils to which I refer are well known and deplored by that 
body of earnest and devoted men and women in all sections 
of American society with whose lofty ideals on the subject 



Report of Penal Commission 19 

of prison reform and generous aspirations for the humane 
treatment of the prisoner, the Washington Congress made 
us every day familiar, but they seem helpless and almost 
hopeless. * * * I was appealed to by leading men in 
more than one State, as British representative, to publicly 
condemn the system, and this I did, at a risk of giving con- 
siderable offense. Until the abuses of the gaol system are 
removed, it is impossible for America to have assigned to 
her by general consent a place in the vanguard of progress 
in the domain of 'la science penitentiaire/ " 

Your Commission desires to submit as its considered judg- 
ment that the foregoing statement does no injustice to many of 
the county prisons of this Commonwealth, and that the Legis- 
lature can do no greater service, nor one that will reflect more 
credit on the Commonwealth, than to sweep away the entire 
county jail system without delay. 

Attention has been called elsewhere in this report to the de- 
plorable conditions of idleness which prevail in the prisons of 
our Commonwealth. These conditions are at their worst in 
the county institutions. In the last six years the average daily 
number of prisoners in the county jails of the Commonwealth 
has been about 6500. Only about one-fourth of these have 
some form of employment other than domestic service. But 
when all of the returns are in with regard to the work accom- 
plished, the number of days spent in complete idleness in the 
course of a year will average more than one million. If we 
regard the labor of the prisoners as worth fifty cents a day, the 
amount of waste thus exceeds $500,000 annually. 

In order to obviate this condition of affairs, the General As- 
sembly in 191 7 passed an Act (No. 337, P. L. 191 7), vesting in 
the officers in charge of county prisons the privilege of allowing 
the prisoners to work on county and poorhouse farms. Al- 
though only twenty-seven counties have taken advantage of this 
Act, its results have been very beneficial. The workers have 



20 Report of Penal Commission 

improved in health, strength and morale, and the produce of 
their labor has been of material help in the up-keep of the in- 
stitutions. Unfortunately, the operation of this Act terminates 
with the close of the war. 

A more comprehensive Act was proposed by the Penal Com- 
mission of 1913-1915, which recommended the establishment of 
six industrial farms to be controlled by the State, to which all 
persons convicted of crime or misdemeanor, and now committed 
to county institutions, should hereafter be sent. This admirable 
measure was, however, amended in such a day as to leave the 
initiative in the creation of such farms and the control thereof 
to the County Commissioners of the nine groups of counties 
into which the State was divided for the purpose (No. 399, 
P. L. 191 7). This legislation has fallen flat, not one of the in- 
dustrial districts having carried the scheme into effect. 

Your Commission submits that there is no remedy for the 
condition of affairs above described other than the complete as- 
sumption by the State of the custody and care of the offenders, 
whether felons or misdemeanants, who are now committed to 
the county institutions. 

Farming for prisoners, as our investigations in other States 
have clearly shown, has passed beyond the experimental stage. 
The State of Massachusetts, some years ago, established a penal 
farm for misdemeanants at Bridgewater. A large tract of 
ground was purchased, consisting largely of swamp and aban- 
doned land, which, by the use of fertilizers and by drainage, has 
been brought to a high degree of cultivation. This enterprise 
has been so signally successful that it is now proposed to move 
the State Prison at Charlestown to this same farm at Bridge- 
water. 

Perhaps the most successful experiment of the kind has been 
made in Indiana, where the State has taken over the custody of 
misdemeanants on the plan which was recommended by the 
Pennsylvania Penal Commission of 1913-1915, a recommenda- 
tion which is renewed in this report. The Superintendent of the 
Indiana State Farm makes the following report : — 



Report of Penal Commission 21 

''The farm had an average daily population, in 19 18, of 
four hundred and sixty-two prisoners. All institution 
buildings and outbuildings, the sewer system, power plant, 
heating and water systems, land reclaiming, farming and 
gardening, has been done with the labor of misdemeanants 
at a surprisingly low cost for guards. The Indiana State 
Farm is allowed fifty-five cents per man per day for its 
entire maintenance, while the same man in jail, at the 
present time, will cost more than one dollar per day for 
the gross maintenance. The fifty-five cents per man per 
day pays the entire pay roll, subsistence, fuel, light, heat, 
medical services, clothing, transportation, field and garden 
seeds, fertilizers, common labor, tools and all other items 
of maintenance. * * * 

"The effect that the Indiana State Farm has had on the 
jail system of the State is indicated by the following fig- 
ures: In the year 1914 there were 18,130 commitments 
to county jails; in 1915, 14,644, and in 1916, 9,896. The 
doors of the State Farm were opened April 12, 191 5, and 
the full effect of the State Farm was not noticeable until 
the close of the year 191 6. The moral effect of the insti- 
tution on the misdemeanant class was one very important 
factor in reducing the jail commitments.' ' 

During the year ending September 30, 19 18, this penal farm 
was two-thirds self-supporting, and it is confidently expected 
that the institution will soon be entirely self-supporting. 

New York City has established a reformatory farm of 630 
acres at New Hampton, N. Y., to which boys and men from 
sixteen to thirty years of age are committed. They have no 
bars, no wall, on restraining thing, except supervision. They 
have no cell for punishment. From the farm they secure most 
of their provisions. In handling 2000 prisoners, they have lost 
only five. The health of the inmates is greatly improved. It 
is estimated that 45 per cent, of the prisoners there were ad- 



22 Report of Penal Commission 

dieted to the drug habit. Most of them were sent away re- 
stored. What they needed was to be built up by fresh air, good 
food and exercise, and to be employed in wholesome work. In 
fact, they have been taught the dignity of labor — a thing to 
which most of them had hitherto been strangers. 

But we need not go beyond the limits of our own State to 
prove the benefit and success of farming for misdemeanants. 
The administration of the Allegheny County Workhouse illus- 
trates the economy of providing employment for prisoners on 
an industrial farm. Here the average daily number of in- 
mates in 1 91 8 was 722. The daily average cost of each inmate 
was 81 cents, but after deducting the earnings of the inmates, 
it was only 32 cents. This means that the inmates earned 49 
cents a day toward their own maintenance. Their bookkeeping 
indicates merely the cost of raising the crops. If the institution 
had charged itself with the produce used by it at the prevailing 
market price, the net cost would have been much less. The 
farm has 670 acres, of which 560 acres are farmed and used 
as pasture. The inmates are continually coming and going. 
Many of them are committed for ten days or less, and a large 
part are sentenced for 30 days, while comparatively few of them 
remain longer than one year. This shows that a great deal of 
efficient work can be secured, even from those who serve for 
short terms. 

A similarly striking result has been attained in Delaware 
County under the law of 191 1, empowering the judges of the 
Courts of Common Pleas to release on parole convicts confined 
in county jails or workhouses under the supervision of desig- 
nated probation officers. Acting under this law, the President 
Judge of that county has during the year 191 8 paroled a num- 
ber of inmates of the county jail to work on farm lands rented 
for the purpose with the remarkable result that only two of 
the men so paroled made their escape (both being afterwards 
retaken) and that nearly $14,000 worth of crops were sold for 
cash in addition to the vegetables used and stored in the prison. 
The net profit is estimated at $7000. 



Report of Penal Commission 23 

Logically, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the State ought 
to assume the care of all offenders. The laws are made by the 
State, and the indictments charge the accused with offenses 
against the "peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," not 
against the peace and dignity of the county, municipality or bor- 
ough. The conclusion is inevitable that the Commonwealth 
should assume the responsibility for the protection of the com- 
munity from both felons and misdemeanants. And since such 
an arrangement as has been proposed will result in reduced tax- 
ation, uniformity of management and in larger opportunities 
for the education and reformation of the delinquent, we feel 
that the establishment of State industrial farms to receive the 
delinquents now committed to the county prisons should receive 
your favorable consideration. 

The bill submitted to carry this recommendation into effect 
omits the counties of Philadelphia and Allegheny from its opera- 
tion. Allegheny County already has a prison farm which in 
many ways may be considered a model of its kind. Philadel- 
phia has a farm in connection with the House of Correction 
which furnishes employment to many prisoners and supplies 
much produce for the institution. We recommend that at some 
early date the City of Philadelphia may, by the purchase of 
more land, extend the advantages of a penal farm to its con- 
vict prison and in some way combine under one management the 
entire penal system of the municipality. 

The fee system, whereby the sheriff or warden receives a 
stipulated such each day for the board of prisoners, is so liable 
to abuse that we submit a proposition to abolish the practice in 
all our prisons. Whenever the profits from boarding the pris- 
oners is a part of the remuneration of the officer in charge, the 
tendency is doubtless to exploit the prisoners, or to reduce to a 
minimum the supply of food, in order to derive the greater 
profit. 

In 1 91 5 a comprehensive study of the cost of boarding the 
prisoners in the largest 25 counties of the Commonwealth indi- 



24 Report of Penal Commission 

cated that the average daily cost of food per prisoner in the 
15 prisons where the food was purchased on the contract sys- 
tem was 12 cents, and in the 10 counties where the fee system 
was in vogue 33.7 cents, the difference in favor of the contract 
system being 21.7 cents per day for each prisoner. 

We estimate that in these 10 counties alone the saving to the 
taxpayers by the adoption of the contract system will be at least 
$50,000 annually. The economy of the proposition is evident, 
making due allowance for providing in some counties additional 
compensation for the official in charge of the prison. In all 
cases where a change has been made from the fee system to 
the contract system, the food has improved in character, thus 
tendering to the betterment of the health and morale of the in- 
mates. 

Moved by these considerations, the General Assembly in 1909 
provided that in all counties having a population of 150,000 or 
more, the food for the prisoners must be purchased by con- 
tract. We are now proposing to extend this principle to all the 
counties of the Commonwealth, with the understanding that no 
such change is to take place during the incumbency of the of- 
ficials who are at the present time in charge of the prisons. 

VI. 

Probation and Parole. 

(a) Under the law of May 10, 1909, the several courts of 
criminal jurisdiction are invested with the power of suspending 
sentence on certain classes of convicted offenders and of placing 
such offenders on probation instead of committing them for 
definite or indeterminate periods of imprisonment. Probation 
officers, charged with the duty of supervising the behavior of 
such probationers, are appointed by the judges to serve in their 
respective counties. In this Commonwealth, as in many others, 
experience has demonstrated that there is little uniformity in 
the practice of the courts in suspending sentence or of the pro- 
bation officers in exercising their powers. 



Report of Penal Commission 25 

Conceived as a mere incident of the sentencing power, to be 
exercised only in exceptional cases, the suspended sentence and 
probation are beginning to disclose themselves as a momentous, 
not to say revolutionary step in the progress of penology, not 
less important in its ultimate consequences than the substitution 
a century ago of imprisonment for the death penalty and other 
forms of physical punishment. Like the older forms of pun- 
ishment which it superseded, imprisonment too has proved a 
failure, so far at least, as the newer aim of punishment, the ref- 
ormation of the wrong-doer is concerned. And we are coming 
to see that the protection which society enjoys through the im- 
prisonment for a few months or years of a small portion of the 
criminal class is dearly purchased by a system which returns 
the offender to society less fitted than before to cope with the 
conditions of a life of freedom. More and more, as we develop 
a probation service worthy of the name, will the courts be re- 
luctant to commit men, women and children to the demoralizing 
associations and discipline of institutional life and will give 
them their chance to redeem themselves under competent guid- 
ance and supervision among the associations and activities of 
everyday life. 

Even under existing conditions it is safe to say that far too 
many adult and youthful offenders convicted of criminal of- 
fenses are committed to prison and far too many delinquent 
children to reformatories and other correctional institutions. 
Your Commission believes that the suspended sentence should 
be more liberally employed by the courts of the Commonwealth 
under strict conditions requiring a life of useful industry under 
careful supervision; that children under 12 years of age should 
never be committed to penal or correctional institutions but 
rather, where institutional care is deemed necessary, to parental 
schools such as have been established in other States as a part 
of the regular educational system; and that children of larger 
growth, say from 12 to 16, should, wherever possible, be placed 
on probation or put under private guardianship. 



26 Report of Penal Commission 

Those considerations have led the Commission to the conclu- 
sion that the whole subject of the suspended sentence and pro- 
bation in this Commonwealth should be thoroughly studied in 
order that the principles that should govern it may be carefully 
defined and its procedure worked out, supervised and put on a 
uniform basis. New York and other States have for this pur- 
pose created a permanent probation board or commission and 
the success which has attended their labors suggests the institu- 
tion of a similar body in this Commonwealth. 

(b) The indeterminate sentence, which made its appearance 
in this Commonwealth in the law of May 10, 1909, has passed 
through several phases to a state in which its purpose is almost 
completely defeated. In its original form it provided that the 
maximum term to be imposed upon a convict who should be 
sentenced to imprisonment in either the Eastern or the Western 
Penitentiaries should not exceed the maximum time prescribd 
by law and that the minimum term when not fixed by law, 
should not exceed one-fourth of the maximum time. This law 
was amended by an Act approved June 19, 191 1, striking out 
the restriction as to the minimum sentence, thus leaving to the 
courts complete discretion to fix the minimum to be served 
at any period short of the maximum. Many of the courts have 
in frequent instances virtually nullified the indeterminate sen- 
tence principle by imposing minimum sentences so excessive as 
to bring the judicial office into disrepute. Sentences of from 
18 years to 20 and from 19 years to 20 have been common, and 
there have been cases so grotesque as sentences of 19 years 11 
months, or of 19 years, 11 months and 29 days to 20 years, of 
23 years and 3 months to 25 years and of 27 to 28 years. 
These are only the more extreme illustrations of a practice 
which has been common enough to justify a demand for a law 
which will result in greater uniformity in the matter of im- 
posing sentences for crime. 

At its best the maximum-minimum form of the indeterminate 
sentence is an unsatisfactory compromise between the ideal aim 



Report of Penal Commission 27 

of penologists and the traditional attitude of the courts, which 
cling tenaciously to their ancient prerogative of "making the 
punishment fit the crime." That the power of determining the 
period of imprisonment requisite to meet the demands of jus- 
tice and the interests of society may safely be confided to other 
than judicial hands has been conceded in the case of all offen- 
ders entitled to commitment to reformatories, who are sentenced 
to an indeterminate term limited only by the maximum fixed by 
law, or, in the case of minors, to the attainment of their major- 
ity, and who may be released on parole in the discretion 
of the boards of managers of the institutions to which they 
are committed. It is only in the case of hardened offenders or 
of those guilty of certain major offenses that a minimum sen- 
tence is imposed. 

For more than a generation prison reformers have urged the 
extension of the pure indeterminate sentence to this class of of- 
fenders also. Their logic is sound; it is the facts that are 
against them. The argument runs like this: The offender 
should be kept in confinement only until he is fitted by his 
prison experience to lead an honest and useful life; when this 
end is attained he should be released. The answer is that the 
prison doesn't in fact reform the wrong-doer; that good behav- 
ior under the conditions of prison life is no assurance of the in- 
tention or capacity of the prisoner to lead an honest and useful 
life after his release, and that the inspectors or other paroling 
authority have no other guide to go by in determining the in- 
mate's fitness for a life of freedom than his prison record. If 
the reformer makes the obvious retort — "then reform your 
prison so that it shall reform its inmates, and reform your pa- 
roling authority so that it shall make its determination on all 
the facts of the inmate's personal history including a study of 
his mental conditions, his heredity and the social influences that 
have shaped his character," he is admitting that we are not yet 
ready for the complete acceptance of the indeterminate sentence 
in all classes of cases. 



28 Report of Penal Commission 

But there is a middle ground between the position of the ex- 
treme reformer and that which has been assumed by the courts 
of this Commonwealth. If there is to be anything short of 
a fixed sentence, declared by law, it should be a reasonable 
minimum which should also be declared by law. The policy of 
the indeterminate sentence is that the delinquent shall be super- 
vised and guided and his capacity to lead an honest and useful 
life tested by actual experience under normal conditions of 
living for a period of years long enough to try out his capacity 
to readjust himself to a life of freedom in society. For this 
reason an adequate interval between the expiration of his mini- 
mum sentence, when he becomes eligible to parole, and the ex- 
piration of his maximum sentence, when he becomes free from 
judicial control, should be guaranteed by law. 

There is great diversity of opinion as to the best form of 
paroling authority. Generally, as in this Commonwealth, this 
power is lodged in the inspectors or managers of the several 
institutions or, in the case of commitments to county prisons, 
in the courts of criminal jurisdiction. In some States, as in 
New York, a distinct Board of Parole is constituted which 
visits the convict prisons at intervals and hears and determines 
all applications for parole that may be awaiting determination. 
Neither system has worked with complete satisfaction. Under 
both the grant of parole is largely a perfunctory matter, the 
inmates who have served their minimum sentences being gen- 
erally admitted to parole at once, except in those cases, com- 
paratively rare in number, where the applicant has been penal- 
ized for misconduct while in confinement. It would seem, 
therefore, that the first step toward a reform of the paroling 
system is not to set up a new paroling authority but to devise 
some more effective machinery to put before the existing au- 
thorities all the essential facts as to the applicant's mental, moral 
and physical capacity to conduct himself as a self-respecting, 
useful member of the community. A second, but not less neces- 
sary step, is such a change in the spirit and method of prison 



Report of Penal Commission 29 

discipline as will develop in the inmates by actual practice the 
qualities of self-respect and self-reliance, the sense of honor 
and of responsibility and the habit of co-operative action so 
essential to fit them for a life of freedom and responsibility, 
and at the same time to equip them with the habits of industry 
and the vocational skill which will enable them to make good 
in the life that awaits them beyond the prison-wall. 

VII. 

General Conclusions. 

In the foregoing analysis of the penal system of this Com- 
monwealth, the Commission has endeavored not only to present 
a picture of the existing conditions in the light of modern con- 
ceptions of penology but to point out, also, the lines of a sound 
and progressive development of the system. Most of the sug- 
gestions thus made have already been embodied in the penal 
systems of other States and of enlightened communities beyond 
the seas. Especially is this the case in such matters as the gen- 
eral employment of the prison population in useful and produc- 
tive labor and in the substitution of farm and cottage colonies 
for the old type of prison. In a few of the larger cities and 
in some institutions promising beginnings have been made in 
the mental examination of delinquents with a view to the pro- 
vision of specialized treatment for those found to be mentally 
afflicted or seriously defective. But in no State or country, 
as yet, have all these improvements been welded into a com- 
prehensive system which makes them available for the entire 
delinquent population. The inertia or indifference which leave 
the extension of these benefits to chance or to the slow con- 
tagion of example is unworthy of a great and progressive 
Commonwealth which has in the past more than once demon- 
started its capacity for leadership in penal reform. 

It is evident that the general adoption in this State of these 
modern improvements in the treatment of the criminal problem 



30 Report of Penal Commission 

can be effected only through the institution of a central agency 
adapted to secure a co-ordination of effort and a uniformity 
of development which under the present system of separate 
control has been demonstrated to be impossible. It seems 
equally evident, however, that the system of separate manage- 
ment of the several institutions with their diverse aims and 
problems possesses advantages which we would not willingly 
sacrifice to an ideal unity. For this reason the Commission 
has not deemed it wise to recommend the example of other 
States which have committed the management of all their 
correctional establishments to a central board of control. 
Moreover, with such a body as the Board of Public Charities 
already vested with a certain authority over the penal institu- 
tions of the State, it has not been deemed desirable to recom- 
mend the creation of a new and independent body to exercise 
a new jurisdiction over such institutions. It seems better to 
utilize the authority which already exists, to enlarge its range 
of functions to meet the needs of the proposed development 
and to commit the exercise of these functions to a standing 
committee analogous to the existing Committee on Lunacy. 
Through such a committee of the Board of Public Charities 
your Commission believes that the desired co-ordination and 
future development of the penal system of the Commonwealth 
can best be secured. 

VIII. 

Recommendations. 

Upon the foregoing facts and conclusions the Commission 
submits the following recommendations, which are herewith 
submitted for such action as the General Assembly may deem 
proper : — 

First. — The Commission recommends that the General As- 
sembly provide for the enlargement of the Board of Public 



Report of Penal Commission 31 

Charities by the addition of two members thereto, at least one 
of whom shall be a woman, and by the institution of a stand- 
ing committee of five members of such Board, at least one of 
whom shall be a woman, such committee, which shall be 
chosen annually by a majority vote of the Board, to be known 
as the "Committee on Delinquency" and to be vested with the 
following powers: — 

(a) To inspect and investigate the condition and manage- 
ment of all penal, correctional and reformatory institutions 
within the Commonwealth and inquire into all complaints 
against the same and report thereon, with recommendations 
of appropriate action, to the Board of Public Charities, the 
Governor, the General Assembly, or the Courts, as the circum- 
stances may require; 

(&) To institute, maintain and supervise a medical service 
adapted to the examination of the inmates of such institutions 
and the proper professional treatment of all such as are men- 
tally or physically afflicted or deficient; 

(c) To make recommendations to the governing authorities 
of all such institutions for the improvement of the sanitary 
and hygienic conditions, the medical and hospital equipment, 
and the medical service thereof; 

(d) To transfer inmates of institutions within its jurisdic- 
tion to other institutions owned, managed or controlled by the 
Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or, if 
suitable arrangements can be made, to other institutions, where 
such inmates may receive treatment more suitable to their men- 
tal and physical condition; 

(e) To institute, maintain and supervise in institutions 
within its jurisdiction a system of correctional and reforma- 
tory education; 

(/) To institute, maintain and supervise a system for the 
employment of the inmates of institutions within its jurisdic- 
tion ; 



32 Report of Penal Commission 

(g) To prepare and submit to the Board of Public Chari- 
ties not later than the first day of December of each even-num- 
bered year, a biennial budget for the Committee and of such 
of the institutions within its jurisdiction as are wholly or partly 
supported by the Commonwealth, and for that purpose to re- 
quire of such institutions such reports from time to time as the 
Committee shall deem necessary; and 

(h) To make rules and regulations establishing a uniform 
system of accounting and bookkeeping in all institutions within 
its jurisdiction. 

It is also recommended that the Committee on Delinquency 
be authorized and directed to choose a Secretary, not a member 
of the Board of Public Charities, at a salary of $7500 per an- 
num, who shall be the executive officer of the Committee and 
an expert in the care and treatment of delinquents, and who 
shall be known as the "Commissioner of Delinquency." 

Second. — The Commission further recommends that the 
General Assembly provide by appropriate legislation for the 
employment of all the able-bodied convicts of the Common- 
wealth in useful and, so far as possible, in productive labor, 
and especially, that it vest in the Committee on Delinquency 
the powers of the Prison Labor Commission and the functions 
of the Business Agent of such Commission and enlarge such 
powers and functions as suggested on page 15 of this report. 

Third. — The Commission further recommends the enactment 
of a law establishing four State Industrial Farms, to receive, 
care for and provide for the useful employment of the inmates 
of county prisons and jails and of persons hereafter convicted 
of any offense punishable by imprisonment in any county jail 
or prison who have been or shall hereafter be sentenced for a 
term of thirty days or more. 

Fourth. — The Commission further recommends that the Act 
of Assembly approved July 17, 1917 (No. 337), providing for 



Report of Penal Commission 33 

the employment, during the continuance of the war, of inmates 
of county jails at agricultural labor on any county or almshouse 
farm, be amended so 'as to continue its operations indefinitely 
after the conclusion of peace. 

Fifth. — The Commission further recommends that the Gen- 
eral Assembly provide for the purchase of a tract of land, of 
not less than 600 nor more than 1200 acres, to be used for the 
benefit of the Eastern Penitentiary as a prison farm. 

Sixth. — The Commission further recommends that a law be 
enacted prohibiting fees or allowances and contracts for fur- 
nishing meals to 1 the inmates of county jails or other penal 
institutions of the Commonwealth. 

Seventh. — The Commission further recommends that the Act 
approved June 19, 191 1, authorizing the courts in the case of 
a person sentenced to a penitentiary to fix as the minimum term 
of imprisonment any period less than the maximum prescribed 
by law for the offense of which such person was convicted, be 
amended by a provision that the minimum limit of the sen- 
tence imposed shall never exceed one-third of the maximum 
prescribed by the Court. 

In the foregoing recommendations the Commission has con- 
fined itself to matters requiring legislative action and to such 
only as seem to it to be essential to a consistent, integrated 
policy of penal administration. All other matters with respect 
to which the Commission has given expression to its views are 
either subsidiary to those on which immediate legislative action 
is recommended or are such as may be properly referred to the 
wisdom of the proposed Committee on Delinquency for con- 
sideration and action. The greatest abuse of the prevailing- 
prison system — the lack of imagination and of understanding 



34 Report of Penal Commission 

which keeps alive in most of our penal establishments the 
methods of a severe and repressive discipline — cannot be abol- 
ished by legislative decree. The greatest reform of which the 
system is capable — the awakening in the inmates of the new 
life which comes from active, responsible participation in the 
life of the prison community — is equally beyond the reach of 
legislative action. These will be the fruits of a keener intelli- 
gence and of a deeper understanding than have yet, except in a 
few rare instances, been brought to bear on the problem. But 
your Commission believes that the plan of penal administration 
which it has recommended, and which provides for the most 
thorough-going study and the most intelligent treatment of the 
individual delinquent which has yet been attempted, will gradu- 
ally prepare the way for these and other reforms in the penal 
system of the Commonwealth. 

Respectfully submitted, 

FLETCHER W. STITES, Chairman, 
ALFRED E. JONES, 
MARTHA P. FALCONER, 
LOUIS N. ROBINSON, 
ALBERT H. VOTAW, 

Commissioners. 
George W. Kirchwey, 

Counsel to the Commission. 
January i, 191 9. 



Report of Penal Commission 35 

SPECIAL EMERGENCY REPORT.— No. 1. 

To His Excellency, Governor Martin G. Brumbaugh: 

Your Commission appointed pursuant to Act No. 409 of the 
Public Laws of 191 7 "to investigate prison systems and the 
management of correctional institutions within this Common- 
wealth and elsewhere" and "to recommend such revision of the 
existing prison system within this Commonwealth * * * 
as it shall deem wise," impressed with the necessity of mobiliz- 
ing the unused labor power of the penal institutions of the 
State for the furtherance of the policy of the National Govern- 
ment in the prosecution of the war, respectfully submits this 
special emergency report. 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has an enviable record 
as a leader in the cause of penal reform. In more than one 
instance it has contributed new and original ideas and has given 
a new direction to the reforming energies of those who have 
striven for a better solution of the problem of crime. In the 
field of convict labor however, we have lagged behind other 
progressive communities. While many other States have during 
the last quarter of a century made great progress in the intro- 
duction of industrial plants into their penal establishments and 
in the employment of their convict population in roadmaking, 
farming and other useful and productive work, the traditional 
"Pennsylvania System" of separate and solitary confinement, 
supplemented by restrictive legislation, has hampered and de- 
layed a similar development in this State. It is only in the last 
few years, during your administration, that legislation has been 
enacted removing the restrictions previously in force and open- 
ing the way to the fullest possible employment of the convict 
population of the State in useful work.* But this legisla- 

* Reference is here made to the Act of 191 5 (No. 289) providing for the 
employment of the inmates of the two State Penitentiaries and of the State 
Reformatory at Huntingdon in the manufacture of goods for public use; to 



36 Report of Penal Commission 

tion has been to recent to produce any considerable results. 
Our large convict population, numbering upwards of 10,000 
souls, is still for the most part maintained in idleness. 

Under ordinary conditions this legislation permitting the 
general employment of the inmates of our penal institutions 
might be allowed to work itself out in practice in the leisurely 
fashion in which such things are generally done in this 
country. But your Commission is strongly of the opinion 
that, in the face of the emergency confronting the nation, 
this habitual attitude of slackness should not be tolerated 
and that it is our patriotic duty at once to devise and put 
into effect whatever measures may be necessary to put our 
convict labor power at the service of the government. To do 
this will require new measures and a new and more energetic 
exploitation of our prison labor resources than the laws above 
referred to — which were conceived in time of peace — have in 
contemplation. Nothing less than the powers of your high 
office will be adequate to meet the emergency. 

The foreign governments with whose co-operation we are 
waging war have dealt radically with the problem. The prisons 
of Italy, France and Great Britain, together with those of 
the great self-governing commonwealths of Canada, Australia, 
New Zealand and South Africa, have been almost depopu- 
lated, a large proportion of the inmates having been paroled 
or pardoned for enlistment in the army and navy, where 
they have for the most part acquitted themselves like men. 
This solution of the problem is barred to us by the Act of 
Congress which excludes ex-convicts from service in the armed 

the Act of 1915 (No. 357) authorizing the State Highway Commissioner and 
the Commissioners of the several counties to employ inmates of penal institu- 
tions in the construction and repair of State and county roads ; to the Act of 
1917 (No. 314) authorizing the State Highway Commissioner to requisition 
inmates of penal institutions for work on State and State-aid highways; to 
the Act of 1917 creating nine industrial farms for the employment of the in- 
mates of county jails and workhouses, and to the Act of the same year (No. 
337) providing for the employment of the inmates of county jails on county 
farms or almshouse farms. Reference should also be made to the Act of 191 1, 
under which a farm of approximately 5,000 acres was purchased in Centre 
County for the use of the Western Penitentiary. 



Report of Penal Commission 37 

forces of the Nation. But, as we are constantly reminded, 
the war is being fought back at home — in munition works, on 
the farms and in the mines and wherever productive work 
can be done — as well as in the battle line, and it is here that 
our opportunity lies. 

No commonwealth in the Union affords opportunities for 
essential service surpassing those which we possess. The 
central position which Pennsylvania occupies in the war-work 
of the National Government, as perhaps the chief source of 
supply for fuel, shipping, steel and munitions of war, with 
her countless acres of fruitful land and her thousands of miles 
of necessary highways, opens up a vista of opportunity to 
serve the common cause to which we can no longer shut our 
eyes. 

In estimating the man-power available for war-work in our 
penal establishments, the Commission can give only approxi- 
mate figures. No complete and trustworthy industrial survey 
of the convict population of the State has ever been made, 
and the population statistics which have been placed at our 
disposal fail in most instances to give detailed information 
as to the numbers deemed capable of full-time work or even 
of the number actually employed in useful, productive labor. 
From the facts at the disposal of the Commission it would 
appear that the total convict population of the State is some- 
what in excess of 10,000, approximately one-half of which is 
to be found in the six State institutions* and the other half 
in the seventy county prisons. Approximately 1600 of the 
total number are children in the three institutions for juvenile 
delinquents, and as most of these are quite young (under 
sixteen years of age), and as practically all of them are use- 
fully employed in agriculture or other productive work, they 
do not enter directly into our problem. 

* The Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia; the Western Penitentiary at 
Allegheny and Bellefonte; the State Industrial Reformatory at Huntingdon; 
the Glen Mills Schools (Sleighton Farms and Glen Mills), and the State In- 
dustrial School at Morganza. 



38 Report of Penal Commission 

Of the 3000 men in the two penitentiaries (including those 
at Belief onte) 1200 are reported as unemployed. But, as 
many of the remaining 1800 are only partially employed or 
are employed in non-essential industries, it is safe to assume 
that, if put on a war basis, at least 800 of these would be 
available for service. A similar deduction might be made 
from the figures submitted from the Industrial Reformatory 
at Huntingdon, 90 per cent, of whose inmates are reported 
to be employed, largely in "trade school work." Putting this 
institution also on a war basis, it is perhaps not unreasonable 
to assume that upwards of one-half could be spared for war 
service. On this calculation, the three State prisons for men 
and youth of working age should be able to furnish some 
2400 men for the contemplated service, without materially im- 
pairing the maintenance work of the institutions. 

The county jails present more of a problem. They range in 
population from the 1038 of the Philadelphia County institu- 
tions (Moyamensing and the Convict Prison at Holmesburg) 
to the emptiness of the Pike County jail at Milford. Thirty- 
three have less than 10 inmates each and only 10 have more 
than 100. Moreover, the character of the population of the 
jails is much inferior from the industrial point of view to 
that of the State prison. There are more "bums," alcoholic 
wrecks and decayed criminals. But neither of these considera- 
tions has much bearing on the problem under consideration. 
Even the most worthless of the jail population can do the 
ordinary cleaning and other maintenance work of the institu- 
tion, thus setting the more able-bodied free for war service. 
Moreover, the measures which the Commission submits here- 
with make provision for the employment of every man capable 
of doing a day's work whether the jail population be large 
or small. 

The further fact that wrongdoers committed to the county 
prison are usually sentenced for short terms, rarely as long as 
a year, need not seriously embarrass the operation of the 



Report of Penal Commission 39 

plan proposed. Many of them, whose criminal practices were 
due to lack of steady employment, will doubtless be glad to 
continue the work to which they are assigned after the ex- 
piration of their terms, and those of whom this is not true, 
can be assigned to work requiring no special skill or experience, 
such as road-making, the production of road material and farm 
labor. 

Only a rough and approximate estimate can be made of the 
number of inmates of the county prisons who are available 
for war work. In only a few of the larger institutions has 
any serious attempt been made to set them at any work other 
than such as incident to the maintenance of the jail. Of the 
492 inmates of the Allegheny County Prison, only about 15 
per cent, are employed, leaving over 400 idle. At the same 
time practically all the 738 inmates of the Workhouse in that 
County were reported as employed, either in farm work or in 
manufacturing. The same was true of the 465 inmates of the 
Philadelphia House of Correction at Holmesburg, whereas the 
600 inmates of the County Prison (Moyamensing) are with a 
few exceptions unemployed. 

Upon the whole it is safe to assert — on the basis of investiga- 
tions conducted by members of the Commission and its counsel 
— that from one-half to two-thirds of the jail and workhouse 
population of the State is maintained in idleness or in only 
desultory and occasional labor. Little use has so far been 
made of the authority granted by the law of 191 7, permitting 
County Commissioners to employ inmates of jails in agricultural 
work on county or almshouse farms and not one of the nine 
districts created by the County Industrial Farm, Workhouse 
or Reformatory Act of the same year has adopted measures to 
put the law into operation. 

These facts lead irresistibly to the conclusion that not less 
than 5000 of the inmates of our penal institutions are now 
available for war work in addition to the number now usefully 
employed. 



40 Report of Penal Commission 

This situation has been conservatively but more dramatically 
described by a member of our Commission, who after a careful 
investigation made in 191 4 and verified in 191 6, reported that 
the Commonwealth was throwing away upwards of a million 
days of labor every year in its penal institutions. 

It must be borne in mind that the numbers given are practi- 
cally constant, the number of new commitments being approxi- 
mately equal to the number annually pardoned, paroled and dis- 
charged. 

To deal with this situation radical measures, suitable only in 
a war emergency, will be necessary. The lack of an adequate 
centralized authority to commandeer this wasted labor force, 
must be made up by the voluntary co-operation of a large num- 
ber of State and local officials acting under the direction of the 
Governor in accordance with a comprehensive, well-thought out 
plan of action. The Commission would respectfully suggest the 
following as the essential elements of such a plan : — 

First. — That the courts of criminal jurisdiction throughout 
the State be induced to exercise liberally the discretion vested in 
them by the penal law of suspending sentence and placing on 
probation for war work persons arraigned before them for 
sentence. In this way, many persons convicted of crime, who 
would otherwise be committed to prison or set at large to resume 
their usual occupations, may be drafted into essential war indus- 
tries. 

The Attorney General of the Commonwealth has already (by 
letters addressed to the Judges of Quarter Sessions and of Oyer 
and Terminer under date of April 16, 1918), recommended such 
action by the courts. This recommendation should be renewed 
with added emphasis and made the basis of a consistent general 
policy dictated by the increasing seriousness of the war labor 
problem. 

Second. — That the Board of Pardons be urged to make more 
extended use of the powers vested in it, with the view of par- 



Report of Penal Commission 41 

doning for war service such of the inmates of the Eastern and 
Western Penitentiaries and of the State Industrial Reformatory 
at Huntingdon, as in their opinion may safely be entrusted with 
their freedom for this purpose, as well as of all other institu- 
tions to whose inmates their jurisdiction extends. 

Third. — That the Board of Inspectors of the two State peni- 
tentiaries, of the Huntingdon Reformatory, and of other con- 
vict prisons where such boards have the power of parole, and 
the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer of the 
several counties, be instructed to parole for war work such in- 
mates eligible to parole in the institutions to which their author- 
ity respectively extends, as in their opinion can wisely be en- 
trusted with their freedom for this purpose. 

Fourth. — That the State Highway Commissioner be directed 
to prepare and put into effect at the earliest practicable moment 
a comprehensive plan for the utilization of convict labor in the 
construction and repair of State roads (under the Act of 191 7, 
heretofore referred to), with special reference to such roads 
as minister to the war needs of the Government. 

Fifth. — That the County Commissioners of the several coun- 
ties be requested to prepare and put into effect similar plans 
for the employment of convicts on county roads, under the Act 
of 1 91 7, heretofore referred to. 

Sixth. — That the trustees of the nine industrial farms cre- 
ated by the County Industrial Farm, Workhouse and Reform- 
atory Act of 191 7, be requested to meet in their respective dis- 
tricts and proceed without delay to carry into effect the pro- 
visions of the Act. 

Seventh. — That the Prison Labor Commission be instructed to 
prepare at once a comprehensive plan for the employment of 



42 Report of Penal Commission 

the inmates of the two State penitentiaries and of the Hunting- 
don Reformatory in accordance with the Act of 191 5, with 
special reference to the production of goods of an essential 
character in time of war. 

Eighth. — That the Wardens and Boards of Inspectors of the 
Eastern and Western Penitentiaries and the Superintendent and 
Board of Inspectors of the Huntingdon Reformatory be re- 
quested to secure the use of farm land in the vicinity of their 
respective institutions for the employment of all the available 
inmates of such institutions in productive agricultural labor. 

Ninth. — That the governing authorities of the several county 
prisons, workhouses and jails and of the Philadelphia House of 
Correction be requested to devise and put into effect immediate 
plans for the employment of their available inmates in produc- 
tive agricultural labor either on county farms or almshouse 
farms (as provided in the Joint Resolution of July 15, 1917), 
or by securing the use of farm land for that purpose. 

The experience of other States has demonstrated that the 
owners of farm lands who have no immediate use for the same 
are willing from patriotic motives to place them at the service 
of the State for the purpose indicated. 

In order that the labor power thus put into operation shall be 
employed to the best advantage of the Government in carrying 
on the war, it is important that a priority scale of essential in- 
dustries be established with the advice and co-operation of the 
War Industries Board, and the United States Employment Serv- 
ice in the State of Pennsylvania. In the meantime, the menac- 
ing dearth of labor in mining, shipbuilding, airplane construc- 
tion, steel production and transportation, suggests that quali- 
fied convicts who are released for war work should so far as 
possible be drafted for these forms of service. Roadmaking 
and agriculture can be carried on by the more trustworthy in- 



Report of Penal Commission 43 

mates who are not eligible for release. The maintenance work 
of the institutions and the necessary manufacture of shoes, 
clothing, etc., for the inmates can be done by those who cannot 
be trusted in outdoor work and by those too weak for the more 
strenuous forms of labor. 

It is of the highest importance, also, that the powers invoked 
to carry the foregoing plan into effect shall be exercised gener- 
ously and fearlessly. We are mobilizing for war and the hesi- 
tations and the timidities suitable and natural in time of peace 
must give way to boldness and resolute action. The prisons 
must be put on a war basis and purged not only of the shameful 
idleness characteristic of them but of every form of unessential 
labor. Because the country above all requires free labor for its 
war needs, as many convicts as possible should be set free to 
be employed where the need is greatest. The presumed need of 
the wrongdoer for further punishment must yield to the supreme 
necessities of the nation. Because a man can render a greater 
service on the farm or on the roads than behind the bars, as 
many men as possible should be put out into the open for the 
more essential service. Risks must be taken which in ordinary 
times would be unwise. There may be defections, betrayals 
of trusts, desertions, but so there are in the armed forces of the 
nation. It is safe to assume that they will be insignificant in 
comparison with the advantages of the policy as a whole. 

It cannot be expected that a plan which involves such a 
variety of operations and which calls for the co-operation of so 
many diverse official agencies can be carried to a successful 
conclusion without some form of centralized direction. Obvi- 
ously, the only possible source of such direction is the Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth. 

In the conviction that the effective mobilization of the labor 
power of our convict population is a matter of sufficient moment 
to the Commonwealth and to the country at large to warrant 
an appeal to your interest and co-operation, the Commission 
respectfully submits the following mode of procedure: — 



44 Report of Penal Commission 

(i) That the Governor call conferences of the Committee of 
Public Safety of the State, of the Board of Pardons, of leading 
Judges of the Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, of the Trustees 
of the nine Industrial Farms, of the Wardens and Inspectors 
of the several State prisons and of the Commissioners of some 
of the more populous counties for the purpose of securing the 
complete co-operation of all the official agencies necessary to 
carry on the program to a successful conclusion. 

(2) That the Governor appoint a Prison War Labor Board, 
to be composed of not less than five and not more than nine 
citizens of standing in the community, to oversee and direct 
the administration of the system above outlined — such Board 
to serve without compensation but if funds are available for 
the purpose to be supplied with the sums necessary to cover 
office expenses and the services of an executive director to be 
appointed by it. The co-operation of the Committee of Public 
Safety can doubtless be secured for this purpose. 

(3) That the Governor enlist the interest and co-operation 
of the convict population and of the people of the Common- 
wealth by issuing a patriotic appeal to them to aid by every 
means in their power to make the enterprise a success. 

In conclusion, your Commission begs to call attention to 
the permanent benefits to be realized from the execution of 
such a program. Not only will the Commonwealth have made 
a substantial contribution to the winning of the war, but the 
enlightened policy so inaugurated will solve at a stroke the age- 
long problem of engaging the entire convict population of the 
State in constructive, profitable activity for the common weal. 
After this demonstration of the benefits of the new order of 
things our penal system can never go back to the old system 
of waste and disorganization. To the convicts themselves, the 



Report of Penal Commission 45 

program opens a prospect of incalculable benefit. For the first 
time the State will have recognized them as part and parcel of 
the Commonwealth, entitled to share with its free citizens in 
the high purpose, the sacrifices and the achievements which are 
welding us into one people. 

Patriotism is not a monoply of the free citizen. On the 
contrary, most of the men who have been put behind the bars 
for criminal acts, not only dove their country and desire to- serve 
her, but passionately crave the opportunity to redeem them- 
selves, in their own eyes and in those of their fellow men, by 
rendering some patriotic service. That such men make soldiers 
equal to the best has been demonstrated by the experience of 
our Allies previously referred to. That they will serve equally 
well in the fields of patriotic endeavor that we may open to 
them, the Commission is assured. For the sake of these men, 
in order that they may by the inspiration of patriotic service 
be raised to the plane of our citizenship, as well as for the con- 
tribution which they may by their labor make to the great 
cause for which we are fighting, the Commission urges the 
adoption of the measures herein recommended. 

FLETCHER W. STITES, 

Chairman. 
ALFRED E. JONES, 
MARTHA P. FALCONER, 
LOUIS N. ROBINSON, 
ALBERT H. VOTAW, 

Penal Investigating Commission. 
George W. Kirch we y, 

Counsel to Commission. 
September i, 1918. 



46 Report of Penal Commission 



SPECIAL EMERGENCY REPORT.— No. a. 

To His Excellency, Governor Martin G. Brumbaugh: — 

Your Commission respectfully calls your attention to the 
pressing necessity, resulting from war conditions, of giving 
immediate effect to the Act of the Legislature, approved by 
you, instituting the State Industrial Home for Women. 

This institution, the result of many years of agitation, was 
created by Act of the Legislature of 191 3, for the reception, 
treatment and care of girls and women between 16 and 30 years 
of age who should be convicted of crime in any court of 
criminal jurisdiction in the State. 

Its purpose was to provide a more suitable place for the de- 
tention and care of women of this class than the State peni- 
tentiaries and the workhouses and county jails of the Com- 
monwealth, where no provision is made or facilities exist for 
the specialized medical treatment and the reformatory influence 
which such cases pre-eminently require. In taking this en- 
lightened action the Legislature was but following the lead 
of other progressive States which have in recent years dem- 
onstrated the value of such institutions as a means of deal- 
ing with the problem of female delinquency. Among in- 
stitutions of this type which have gained wide recognition 
it is only necessary to mention the Massachusetts Reformatory 
for Women at Framingham, the New York State Reformatory 
for Women at Bedford Hills, the Western House of Refuge 
for Women at Albion, New York, the New Jersey State 
Reformatory for Women at Clinton, and the Ohio Reformatory 
for Women at Marysville. The two New York institutions 
have a combined population of upwards of 600 inmates and 
it is estimated that this number could easily be doubled if 
sufficient room were provided to accommodate all who need 
the care and treatment that these institutions afford. In Penn- 
sylvania the girls and women for whom the State Industrial 



Report of Penal Commission 47 

Home was intended now languish in the unsuitable and often 
degrading confinement of the penitentiaries, workhouses and 
jails, or are, more frequently, set at large by judges who are 
unwilling to commit any but the most degraded and dangerous 
to the ordinary penal establishments. 

But these conditions, which have long been a reproach to 
the Commonwealth, have now been suddenly intensified and 
rendered acute by the war needs and policies of the nation. 
National, State and Municipal authorities are energetically co- 
operating in the effort to maintain the efficiency and morale of 
the fighting and working forces on which our safety depends 
by removing from the neighborhood of training camps, ship- 
yards, munition plants, etc., the degraded girls and women 
who lie in wait for our young men. Laws have been passed 
and a vast machinery of organized effort set in motion to 
cope with this evil, but the effort of the law enforcing agencies 
is paralyzed by the lack of places of detention and treatment to 
which those who maintain this menace can be committed. For 
this purpose the jails and workhouses are wholly unfitted. To 
commit a woman of this class to such a place, where she can 
neither be adequately treated nor reformed and from which 
she will in a few weeks or a few months be released to re- 
sume her nefarious trade, is manifestly to palter with a critical 
situation which demands a more drastic remedy. For this 
reason our prosecuting authorities, both State and Federal, are 
generally releasing such women on bail or on their own recog- 
nizance without putting them to trial. 

To open the State Industrial Home for Women for the re- 
ception of such offenders would, to the extent of its capacity, 
conclusively solve this problem. Here they can be put under 
competent medical and reformatory treatment and, if not re- 
formed, kept in confinement under an indeterminate sentence 
until the immediate purpose of this segregation has been ac- 
complished. 

The original Act instituting the State Industrial Home for 
Women provided that the institution should be opened as soon 



48 Report of Penal Commission 

as it had room for the reception of 200 inmates. This Act 
was amended by the Act of 19 15 providing for the transfer of 
the buildings and grounds to the Board of Managers of the 
new institution as soon as provision had been made for the 
care of 50 inmates. Your Commission is advised that the 
buildings and grounds have now been substantially completed 
in accordance with the original plans with a capacity for 
150 inmates and that, if the work is pushed with the requisite 
energy they can easily be made ready for occupancy and use 
by the first of November. 

In view of these facts and of the urgency of the situation, 
the Commission respectfully recommends : — 

(1) That the Building Commission be instructed to complete 
the work entrusted to them with the utmost possible speed ; and 

(2) That you appoint at once the Board of Managers of the 
institution provided by the Act of 19 13 and instruct them to 
proceed without delay to furnish and equip the buildings so 
as to have them ready for occupancy as soon as they are com- 
pleted and in the meantime to appoint the Superintendent and 
make and publish the rules and regulations for the government 
of the institution. 

Respectfully submitted, 

FLETCHER W. STITES, 
Chairman Commission to Investigate 
Penal Conditions. 
September 15, 1918. 



Report of Penal Commission 49 



AN ACT 

For the centralized regulation and supervision of 
penal, correctional, and reformatory institutions within 
this Commonwealth, and of the labor of the inmates 
thereof; creating a Committee on Delinquency to be 
elected by the Board of Public Charities from its 
members, with a Commissioner of Delinquency to be 
appointed by the Committee as its executive officer; 
providing for the appointment of certain directors 
and of such other directors, experts, agents, and em- 
ployees as shall be necessary; enumerating the powers 
and duties of the Committee; providing for the trans- 
fer with the approval of the Courts of inmates from 
one institution to another; requiring all institutions 
within the jurisdictions of the Committee to obey its 
rules and regulations, make reports, and give inmates 
an opportunity to work at useful employment; pro- 
viding for the payment of compensation to the inmates 
of certain institutions within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee; abolishing the prison Labor Commission; 
fixing penalties for disobedience of the provisions of 
this Act, and making an appropriation. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That the Board of Public Charities shall appoint a stand- 
ing committee of five of its members to be known as the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency. Such Committee shall be chosen within 
thirty days after the approval of this Act, and annually there- 
after, by a majority vote of all of the members of the Board, 
and at least one member of such Committee shall be a woman. 
Vacancies in the membership of the Committee shall be filled 
in like manner. Within thirty days after their selection, the 
Committee shall each year elect one of its members as chair- 
man. 



50 Report of Penal Commission 

The members of the Committee shall serve without com- 
pensation but shall receive all of their travelling and other 
necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official 
duties. 

Section 2. The Committee selected under the provisions of 
this Act shall appoint a secretary, who shall not be a member 
of the Committee or of the Board of Public Charities. The 
secretary shall be the executive officer of the Committee and 
shall be known as the Commissioner of Delinquency. He shall 
be a person having expert knowledge respecting delinquency, 
and the care and treatment of delinquents and shall devote his 
entire time to the duties of his office. He shall be appointed 
for a term of five years and shall receive a salary of seven 
thousand, five hundred dollars per annum. The Committee 
shall have the power to remove the Commissioner at any time 
for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct in office, and 
shall, whenever a vacancy occurs either by death, resignation, 
or removal from office, appoint a Commissioner to fill the un- 
expired term. 

Section 3. Subject to the approval of the Committee on De- 
linquency, the Commissioner of Delinquency shall appoint a 
medical director, an educational director, a director of indus- 
tries, and such other directors, experts, agents, and employees 
for such terms and at such compensation as shall be fixed by 
the Committee on Delinquency. The Commissioner with the 
approval of the Committee shall have the power at any time to 
remove any director, or any expert, agent, or employee, so ap- 
pointed. 

Section 4. The Board of Commissioners of Public Grounds 
and Buildings shall provide the Committee on Delinquency 
with suitable rooms in the State Capitol, and elsewhere if neces- 



Report of Penal Commission 51 

sary, and shall upon requisition of the Commissioner of De- 
linquency furnish for the Committee such books, stationery, 
furniture and supplies as may be needed to enable the Com- 
mittee to properly perform its duties. 

The printing and binding necessary in connection with the 
work of the Committee, or for the preservation of books, docu- 
ments, and papers filed with the Committee shall be done by 
the State Printer upon the order of the Superintendent of the 
Public Printing and Binding upon requisition of the Commis- 
sioner of Delinquency. 

Section 5. The Committee on Delinquency shall have juris- 
diction for the purposes of this act over all institutions within 
this Commonwealth of a penal, correctional, or reformatory 
character now existing, or which may hereafter be established 
including industrial farms, workhouses, and reformatories, and 
reformatory institutions for minors or women, whether man- 
aged by the Commonwealth, or any political sub-division thereof 
or otherwise; Provided, That this act shall not be interpreted 
to deprive any warden, superintendent, or other officer, or board 
of inspectors, managers, or trustees, of any such institution of 
the right to manage its affairs, but every such institution shall 
make such reports to the Committee on Delinquency as the 
Committee shall be authorized by this Act to require and shall 
obey the rules and regulations established, and follow the 
recommendations made, by the Committee as authorized by this 
Act. 

Section 6. The Committee on Delinquency shall have the 
power and its duty shall be: — 

(a) To inspect and investigate the condition and manage- 
ment of all institutions within its jurisdiction, and inquire into 
all complaints against the same, and report thereon with recom- 
mendations of appropriate action to the Board of Public Chari- 



52 Report of Penal Commission 

ties, the Governor, the General Assembly, or the courts, as the 
circumstances may require; 

(b) To institute, maintain, and supervise a medical service 
to accomplish the purposes enumerated in this Act; 

(c) To make recommendations to institutions within its 
jurisdiction for the improvement of the sanitary and hygienic 
conditions, the medical and hospital equipment, and the medical 
service thereof; 

(d) To transfer inmates of institutions within its jurisdic- 
tion to other institutions owned, managed, or controlled by the 
Commonwealth or any political sub-division thereof, or if suit- 
able arrangements can be made, to other institutions, where 
such inmates may receive treatment more suitable to their 
mental and physical condition; Provided, That prior to the 
transfer from one institution to another of any such inmate, 
the consent of the Court which committed such inmate shall be 
procured; And provided further, That the person or community 
responsible for the maintenance of any beneficiary transferred 
from one institution to another shall be liable to pay to the 
institution to which such beneficiary shall have been transferred 
the cost of maintenance of such beneficiary at the rate of the 
average per capita cost of maintenance in such institutions; 

0) To institute, maintain, and supervise in institutions 
within its jurisdiction a system of correctional and reforma- 
tory educaton to accomplish the purposes enumerated in this 
Act; 

(/) To institute, maintain, and supervise a system for the 
employment of the inmates of institutions within its jurisdic- 
tion as provided in this Act; 

(g) To prepare and submit to the Board of Public Chari- 
ties, not later than the first day of December of each even- 
numbered year, a biennial budget for the committee and such 
of the institutions within its jurisdiction as are wholly or 
partly supported by the Commonwealth. Such budget shall set 
forth the expenditures of the Committee and such institutions 



Report of Penal Commission 53 

during the preceding two years, their estimated financial needs 
for the succeeding two years, and such other information as the 
Committee shall deem appropriate. 

To enable it to prepare such budget, the Committee shall 
have the power to require of institutions within its jurisdic- 
tion, and such institutions shall prepare and submit, such re- 
ports from time to time as the Committee shall deem necessary, 
but to the extent that reports shall be required by the Commit- 
tee for the purpose of preparing such budget ; institutions within 
the jurisdiction of the Committee shall not be required to report 
to the Board of Public Charities; and, 

(h) To make rules and regulations establishing a uniform 
system of accounting and bookkeeping in all institutions within 
its jurisdiction. 

Section 7. The medical service which the Committee on 
Delinquency is by this Act required to institute, maintain, and 
supervise shall include: — 

(a) The prompt and thorough examination of all of the 
inmates of institutions within its jurisdiction with a view to 
the proper diagnosis, classification, and treatment of all such 
persons ; 

(b) The prescription and maintenance of standards in diag- 
nosis and treatment in all institutions within its jurisdiction 
and the determination of the qualifications of those selected as 
physicians, psychiatrists, stewards, or nurses, in such institu- 
tions ; 

(c) The furnishing of instructions in personal and social 
hygiene to the inmates of all institutions within its jurisdiction, 
and of instruction in professional training to such officials, 
employees, or inmates of such institutions as may be called 
upon to serve as assistants, nurses, or otherwise, in the medi- 
cal or hospital departments thereof; 



54 Report of Penal Commission 

(d) The frequent inspection of the institutions within its 
jurisdiction with respect to their sanitary and hygienic condi- 
tion, the adequacy of their medical and hospital equipment, 
and the competency and efficiency of their medical service; and, 

(e) The installation and supervision of a proper dietary ade- 
quate to the maintenance of the health, efficiency, and morale, 
of the inmates in all institutions within its jurisdiction. 

Section 8. The system of correctional and reformatory 
education which the Committee on Delinquency is by this Act 
required to institute, maintain, and supervise shall include : — 

(a) The prescription and maintenance of standards of cor- 
rectional and reformatory education in all institutions within 
its jurisdiction and the determination of the qualifications of 
those selected as teachers; and, 

(b) The education in elementary branches of illiterate and 
undeveloped inmates of such institutions; the instruction of all 
inmates of such institutions in the principles, organization, and 
practice of American government; and the furnishing of a 
thorough industrial training to any of the inmates of such 
institutions for whom such training shall be deemed useful and 
desirable. 

Section 9. With respect to the labor of the inmates of any 
institutions within its jurisdiction to which persons are com- 
mitted for crime or delinquency, the Committee on Delinquency 
shall have the power and its duty shall be: — 

(a) To require every such institution to afford to the in- 
mates thereof, who are physically capable, an opportunity to 
perform useful labor in such institutions; 

(b) To determine what industries shall be established in 
such institutions and to regulate and supervise the installation 
of machinery and equipment therein; 



Report of Penal Commission 55 

(c) To establish rules and regulations for the employment 
of inmates of such institutions at road-building, quarrying, or 
crushing stone, agricultural work, land reclamation, or for- 
estry, or other suitable work outside of such institution; and, 

(d) To establish rules with regard to the number of hours 
per day during which such inmates shall be employed; 'Pro- 
vided, That except in agricultural work such inmates shall not 
be employed for more than eight hours in any one day. 

Section 10. With respect to the labor of inmates of such 
of the institutions within its jurisdiction as are owned or man- 
aged and controlled by the Commonwealth or any political sub- 
division thereof, the committee shall, in addition to the powers 
and duties enumerated in the preceding section of this act, have 
the power and its duty shall be: — 

(a) To maintain a manufacturing fund for the purposes 
specified in this section. The original manufacturing fund of 
the committee shall be the manufacturing fund paid to the 
committee by the Prison Board Commission, as provided in 
this act, together with any and all sums due and owing to such 
Commission, and the unexpended balance of any appropriation 
made for the use of such commission. To such fund there 
shall be added from time to time such amount or amounts as 
shall be appropriated by the General Assembly; 

All receipts from the sale of the products, manufactured or 
produced by the labor of the inmates of any such institution, 
shall be credited to the manufacturing fund and used for the 
purchase of machinery, equipment, raw materials, and supplies, 
and for the payment of wages to such inmates; 

(b) To sell to the Commonwealth or to any political sub- 
division thereof, or any institution, owned, managed, or con- 
trolled by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision 
thereof, at not more than the prevailing market price the pro- 
ducts of the labor of such inmates; Provided, That institutions 



56 Report of Penal Commission 

within the jurisdiction of the Committee owned, or managed 
and controlled by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivi- 
sion thereof, shall have the privilege of selling directly such 
of their agricultural products as they do not consume, but every 
such institution selling agricultural products shall account for 
and pay to such committee the proceeds of the sale of such 
products. 

Any surplus of the products of the labor of such inmates 
which cannot be sold to the Commonwealth, or any political 
subdivision thereof, or any institution owned, or managed and 
controlled by the Commonwealth, or a political subdivision 
thereof, shall be sold in the open market, but any such product 
sold in the open market shall not be sold for less than the pre- 
vailing market price. 

Should any institution desire to use the products of the 
labor of its inmates, other than agricultural products, it shall 
purchase the same from the Committee on Delinquency. 

(c) From time to time to fix the compensation of such in- 
mates for labor performed by them; Provided, That the rate 
of compensation to such inmates shall be based both upon the 
pecuniary value of the work performed and on the willingness, 
industry, and good conduct of the inmate performing the same ; 

(d) To make rules and regulations governing the payment 
of compensation earned by such inmates. Such rules and 
regulations may provide for the payment of a part of their 
compensation to inmates during their term of confinement to 
be used for such purchases as such rules and regulations shall 
permit. They shall also provide for the bi-monthly payment 
of such part of the compensation of such inmates as the com- 
mittee shall determine to the dependents of such inmates, and 
for the payment of the unpaid balance of such compensation 
to such inmates at the time of their discharge, or at periodic 
intervals on and after their discharge; and, 

(e) To establish rules and regulations for the keeping of 
records and accounts by all such institutions, showing the labor 



Report of Penal Commission 57 

performed by the inmates thereof, the value of the products 
thereof, and the wages paid to inmates, or their dependents, or 
both. 

Section ii. All wages paid to the inmates of institutions 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Delinquency 
owned, or managed and controlled by the Commonwealth, or 
any political subdivision thereof, shall be paid out of the com- 
mittee's manufacturing fund upon the order of the warden, 
superintendent, or other proper officer of the institution in, or 
in connection with, which the labor shall have been performed. 

\ 

Section 12. The Prison Labor Commission created by the 
act approved the first day of June one thousand nine hundred 
and fifteen, entitled "An act providing a system of employ- 
ment and compensation for the inmates of the Eastern Peni- 
tentiary, Western Penitentiary, and the Pennsylvania Indus- 
trial Reformatory at Huntingdon, and for such other correc- 
tional institutions as shall be hereafter established by the Com- 
monwealth, and making an appropriation therefor" is hereby 
abolished, and shall cease to exist, thirty days after the chair- 
man of the committee on delinquency shall have notified the 
Prison Labor Commission in writing that the Committee on 
Delinquency has been duly organized as provided in this act. 
Within such period of thirty days the Prison Labor Com- 
mission shall transfer and set over to the Committee on De- 
linquency all books, papers, and records, and all moneys and 
evidences of debt, in its possession, and the Auditor Gen- 
eral is hereby authorized and directed to draw a warrant on 
the State Treasurer for the payment to the Committee on 
Delinquency of the unexpended balance of any appropria- 
tion made for the use of the Prison Labor Commission.. 

Section 13. For the purpose of inspecting any institution 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Delinquency, such 



58 Report of Penal Commission 

committee, the Commissioner of Delinquency, and any director, 
expert, agent, or employee, deputized by the Commissioner of 
Delinquency for the purpose, shall have free access to the 
grounds, buildings, and all books, papers, and records of such 
institution, and all persons, connected with any such institution, 
are hereby directed and required to give such information and 
to afford such facilities for inspection as the person making 
such inspection may require. Any officer or person connected 
with such institution who shall refuse to admit the Committee 
on Delinquency, the Commissioner of Delinquency, or any 
director, expert, agent, or employee, deputized by him for the 
purpose, or who shall refuse to give any information, or fur- 
nish any facility, necessary for the examination and inspection 
of such institution, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall 
upon conviction in the proper court be subject to a fine of one 
hundred dollars which sum when so recovered shall be paid 
into the treasury of the Commonwealth. 

Section 14. Should the warden, superintendent, or other 
officer, or officers, or the board of inspectors, managers, or 
trustees of any institution, within the jurisdiction of the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency, which is owned, or managed and con- 
trolled by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision 
thereof, fail to obey the rules and regulations established, or 
to make any report required, by the Committee on Delinquency 
under the authority of this act, the Committee on Delinquency 
shall certify such fact to the Governor or other officer or 
officers of this Commonwealth or of the appropriate political 
subdivision thereof, who shall have appointed such warden, 
superintendent, or other officer, or officers, or board of inspec- 
tors, managers, and trustees, and any such warden, superin- 
tendent, officer, or member of a board of inspectors, managers, 
or trustees, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon 
conviction in the proper court be subject to a fine of one hun- 



Report of Penal Commission 59 

dred dollars, which sum when so recovered shall be paid into 
the treasury of the Commonwealth. 

Should any institution within the jurisdiction of the Commi- 
tee on Delinquency which is not owned, or managed and con- 
trolled by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision 
thereof, fail to obey such rules and regulations, or make such 
report, such institution shall not be entitled to receive any 
financial assistance from the Commonwealth, and it shall be 
unlawful for the Auditor General, after having received notice 
in writing from the Committee on Delinquency that any such 
institution has failed to obey such rules or regulations, or to 
make such report, to issue a warrant for the payment of any 
money appropriated to such institution so long as such institu- 
tion shall continue to refuse to obey such rules and regulations, 
or to make such report. 

Section 15. All salaries, compensation, and expenses, pay- 
able under this act, except wages for labor performed by in- 
mates shall be paid by the State Treasurer on the warrant of 
the Auditor General. 

i 

Section 16. To carry out the purposes of this act the sum 
of two hundred thousand dollars, ($200,000), or such part 
thereof as shall be necessary is hereby appropriated to the 
Committee on Delinquency. 

Section 17. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith 
are hereby repealed. 



6o Report of Penal Commission 



AN ACT 

Providing for the appointment by the Governor with 
the advice and consent of the Senate of two additional 
members of the Board of Public Charities. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That the Governor shall, within thirty days after the 
approval of this act with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
appoint two additional members to the Board of Public Chari- 
ties at least one of whom shall be a woman. The said addi- 
tional members shall be appointed for a term of five years and, 
in the event that any vacancy shall occur by death or resigna- 
tion, the Governor shall, with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, fill such vacancy by appointment for the unexpired 
term. The Governor shall have such power of removal with 
regard to such members as is now provided by law with re- 
spect to the other members of the Board. 



Report of Penal Commission 61 



AN ACT 

Requiring the Commonwealth, and all political sub- 
divisions thereof, and all public institutions owned, or 
managed and controlled by the Commonwealth or any 
political subdivision thereof, to purchase certain sup- 
plies and materials from the Committee on Delin- 
quency of this Commonwealth; providing for the ad- 
ministration of this act by the Committee on Delin- 
quency and others; making it unlawful, under certain 
circumstances, for the Auditor General of the Com- 
monwealth, or the Controller, or other auditing officer 
of any political subdivision thereof, to approve, or the 
treasurer of any institution owned, or managed and 
controlled by the Commonwealth, or any political sub- 
division thereof, to pay any bill for such supplies and 
materials purchased elsewhere, and providing for the 
determination by a board of arbitration, chosen for 
the purpose, of disagreements arising in the adminis- 
tration of this act. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That the Commonwealth, and all political subdivisions 
thereof, and all institutions owned, or managed and controlled 
by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, shall 
purchase from the Committee on Delinquency of this Common- 
wealth all materials and supplies required by them whenever 
such committee shall be able to furnish such supplies and ma- 
terials, or a substantial equivalent thereof, manufactured or 
produced by the labor of inmates of institutions within the 
jurisdiction of such committee. 

Section 2. On or before the fifteenth day of December of 
each year, the Committee on Delinquency shall prepare a list 
of classes of all supplies and materials, so manufactured or pro- 
duced, which it will be prepared to furnish during the year 



62 Report of Penal Commission 

commencing on the first day of January next ensuing. A copy 
of such list shall be mailed by the Committee on Delinquency 
to the Auditor General of the Commonwealth, the auditing of- 
ficer or officers of every political subdivision thereof, and the 
treasurer of every institution owned, or managed and controlled 
by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, and, 
upon application, to any officer or department of the Common- 
wealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, and to any of- 
ficer of a public institution owned, or managed and controlled 
by the Commonwealth, or a political subdivision thereof. 

Section 3. Before purchasing any supplies or any materials 
belonging to any class in the annual list prepared by the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency otherwise than from such committee, the 
proper purchasing officer or officers of the Commonwealth, or 
of any political subdivision thereof, or of any institution owned, 
or managed and controlled by the Commonwealth, or any po- 
litical subdivision thereof, shall on and after the first day of 
January, one thousand, nine hundred and twenty, inquire of 
the Committee on Delinquency whether it is able to furnish the 
particular supplies or materials desired, or a substantial equiva- 
lent thereof, and shall purchase such materials or supplies, or a 
substantial equivalent thereof, from such committee, if such 
supplies or materials, or a substantial equivalent thereof, can 
be furnished by it. 

It shall be the duty of the Committee on Delinquency promptly 
to reply in writing to all inquiries regarding the supplies and 
materials which it is prepared to furnish. 

Section 4. On or before the fifteenth day of October of each 
year the officer or officers whose duty it is to make purchases 
for the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, or 
any institution, owned, or managed and controlled by the Com- 
monwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, shall furnish to 
the Committee on Delinquency an estimate of the character and 



Report of Penal Commission 63 

quantity of supplies of materials which in the opinion of such 
officer or officers it will be necessary to purchase for the Com- 
monwealth, the political subdivision thereof, or the institution 
as the case may be. 

Section 5. On and after the first day of January one thou- 
sand, nine hundred and twenty, it shall not be lawful for the 
Auditor General of the Commonwealth, or for the auditing 
officer or officers of any political subdivision thereof, or for the 
treasurer of any institution owned, or managed and controlled 
by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, to 
approve any bill for supplies or materials belonging to any class 
included in the annual list prepared by the Committee on De- 
linquency if purchased otherwise than from such Committee 
during the year for which such list shall have been prepared, 
unless there shall accompany such bill a letter from the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency stating that it has been impossible for 
such committee to furnish the particular supplies or materials 
desired, or a substantial equivalent thereof. 

Section 6. Whenever there shall be a disagreement between 
the Committee on Delinquency, and the Commonwealth, or any 
political subdivision thereof, or any institution owned, or man- 
aged and controlled by the Commonwealth, or any political sub- 
division thereof, on the question whether the Committee on 
Delinquency is able to furnish a substantial equivalent of any 
materials or supplies desired by the Commonwealth, or such 
political subdivision, or such institution, a board of arbitra- 
tion shall forthwith be created to determine the question. Such 
board shall consist of three members. One of such members 
shall be appointed by the Committee on Delinquency, one shall 
be appointed by the chief executive officer of the Common- 
wealth, or of the political subdivision thereof, or of the institu- 
tion as the case may be, and the two members thus appointed 
shall choose the third member. Should the two members thus 



64 Report of Penal Commission 

appointed fail within ten days to choose the third member of 
the board either of them may by petition setting forth the facts 
apply to the president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of 
Dauphin County who shall forthwith choose a third member of 
such board. 

Immediately after its selection any such board shall meet and 
determine the question before it. It shall report its decision in 
writing to the Committee on Delinquency and such decision shall 
be final and binding both upon the Committtee on Delinquency 
and the Commonwealth, or political subdivision, or institution, 
as the case may be. 

Section 7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are 
hereby repealed. 



Report of Penal Commission 65 



TEXT OF THE BILLS PROPOSED BY THE 
COMMISSION. 

AN ACT 

Establishing four state industrial farms dividing the 
State into districts for such purpose; authorizing the 
purchase of sites and the erection and equipment 
of buildings and works for such institutions; pro- 
viding for their government and control by boards of 
managers appointed by the Governor and the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency of this Commonwealth, and for 
the commitment, admission, transfer, employment, and 
discharge of inmates imposing the cost of maintain- 
ing, and, except in certain cases, transporting inmates 
on the counties; and of sites, buildings, improvements, 
overhead expenses, and the transportation of certain 
prisoners on the Commonwealth; exempting state 
industrial farms from taxation and making an appro- 
priation. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That this act shall be known and may be cited as "The 
State Industrial Farms Act of one thousand nine hundred 
and nineteen." 

Section 2. There are hereby established four state in- 
dustrial farms for the first, second, third, and fourth dis- 
tricts respectively. 

Section 3. The first district shall comprise the counties 
of Berks, Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Leb- 
anon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and York; and the 
state industrial farm therein located shall be known as the 
"Southeastern Industrial Farm." 

The second district shall comprise the counties of Brad- 



66 Report of Penal Commission 

ford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, 
Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Pike, Schuylkill, Snyder, 
Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, and Wyoming; 
and the state industrial farm therein located shall be known 
as the "Northeastern Industrial Farm." 

The third district shall comprise the counties of Armstrong, 
Butler, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, 
Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Potter, 
Venango, and Warren; and the state industrial farm therein 
located shall be known as the "Northwestern Industrial Farm." 

The fourth district shall comprise the counties of Adams, 
Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Cumberland, Fayette, Frank- 
lin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin, 
Perry, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland; and the 
state industrial farm therein located shall be known as the 
"Southwestern Industrial Farm." 

'Section 4. Upon the approval of this act a board of 
managers for each district shall be appointed by the Gov- 
ernor. Each board shall consist of either five or seven 
reputable citizens, one or two of whom shall be women. 
The members of such boards shall serve without compen- 
sation, but all of their expenses actually and necessarily 
incurred shall be paid by the State Treasurer on the war- 
rant of the Auditor General, which shall be issued upon 
the order of the board, countersigned by the secretary of 
the Committee of Delinquency of this Commonwealth. The 
members of the various boards shall serve for a term of 
five years and their successors for the same period. The 
Governor may remove any of the managers for misconduct, 
incompetency, or neglect of duty, and in case of a vacancy 
for any cause shall fill such vacancy by appointment for 
the unexpired term. 

Section 5. The board of managers of each district is 
hereby authorized by a majority vote to select a suitable 



Report of Penal Commission 67 

site for the state industrial farm of the district. Such 
site shall be within the district, and shall either be chosen 
from lands donated to the Commonwealth for the purpose 
or purchased by the board with moneys appropriated or 
donated for the purpose; Provided, That any such site shall 
not contain more than two thousand (2,000) acres. The 
title to land donated or purhcased as herein provided shall 
be taken and held in the name of "The Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania," and shall be examined and approved by 
the Attorney General prior, to the acceptance or purchase of 
the land. In the selection of a site the board of managers 
shall take into consideration the objects and purposes of the 
institution, the accessibility of any proposed site to the counties 
included in the district, and all or as many as practicable 
of the following enumerated advantages and resources. The 
land selected and purchased shall be of varied topography with 
natural resources and advantages for many forms of hus- 
bandry, fruit growing, and stockraising ; for brick-making, 
and for the preparation of all other road and paving material; 
and shall have good railroad drainage, sewage, and water 
facilities. Waste land or land requiring drainage may be 
selected if deemed susceptible of profitable cultivation after 
its improvement. 

Section 6. All buildings constructed in pursuance of this 
act shall be plain and inexpensive in character and the labor 
in constructing such buildings, improvements and facilities 
shall be supplied by persons committed to the state industrial 
farm or confined in State or county penal, reformatory, or 
correctional institutions so far as found practicable. 

The boards of managers shall procure all necessary materials ; 
erect and equip such buildings; employ such skilled labor 
as cannot be furnished by the persons committed to their 
respective industrial farms or by persons confined in State, 
or county penal, reformatory or correctional institutions and 



68 Report of Penal Commission 

provide all proper facilities for their use and for the practical 
use of the institution. 

When the board of managers of any State industrial farm 
shall have made all preliminary arrangements for the con- 
struction of the buildings and equipment therein, they shall 
notify the Governor who shall issue a proclamation announc- 
ing such fact, and thereafter prisoners having more than 
thirty days to serve shall be transferred to such State in- 
dustrial farm from any jail or workhouse in that district 
on the order of the Governor. 

Section 7. The boards of inspectors of the State peni- 
tentiaries, and of the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory 
at Huntingdon, upon the request of a board of managers 
of a State industrial farm, are hereby authorized to transfer 
to such State industrial farm from their respective in- 
stitutions any prisoners of special or mechanical ability therein 
who may be found in the judgment of such board and the 
board of managers of such State industrial farm suitable 
for the purpose, and provide transportation and proper guards 
for such prisoners and while such prisoners remain at such 
State industrial farm they shall be subject to the orders of 
the inspectors of the institution from which they were trans- 
ferred as to their return, and in all other respect, except as 
to discipline and government. While at such State industrial 
farm they shall be under the control, discipline, and govern- 
ment, and subject to the orders, of the board of managers 
of such State industrial farm and its executive officers. 

The expense of transporting and transferring prisoners 
used in the construction of buildings and equipment to 
and from any State industrial farm shall be paid by the 
State Treasurer upon the warrant of the Auditor General 
out of any moneys appropriated for the establishment of 
Such State industrial farm. The Auditor General shall issue 
warrants for such purpose upon the order of the execu- 



Report of Penal Commission 69 

tive officer of the board of managers of such State in- 
dustrial farm. 

The maintenance of such prisoners as are transferred from 
a State penitentiary or reformatory shall be paid by the in- 
stitution from which they are transferred, but the cost 
of such maintenance in excess of the average per capita 
cost of maintaining prisoners at the institution from which 
such prisoners shall have been transferred shall be refunded 
to any such institution out of any moneys appropriated for 
the establishment of the State industrial farm. 

Section 8. When any State industrial farm shall have 
been established and ready for operation, a superintendent 
and matron and such other officers as may be deemed 
necessary shall be appointed by the proper board of managers. 
Any persons so appointed shall hold their offices respectively 
during the pleasure of the board of managers. The compen- 
sation of all such persons shall be fixed by the board of 
managers. 

Section 9. When in any district the arrangements for the 
reception of inmates shall have been completed, the Court 
of quarter sessions of every county embraced in such dis- 
trict shall transfer from the county prisons and jails re- 
spectively to the State industrial farm of the district all 
persons who shall have been sentenced to any of said county 
prisons and jails for any crime, misdemeanor or felony, murder 
and voluntary manslaughter excepted, or who shall have 
been committed to any of such county prisons and jails for 
non-payment of any fine or penalty, or for non-payment of 
costs, or for default in complying with any order of court 
entered in any prosecution for desertion or non-support, and 
any other persons legally confined in any of said county jails 
or prisons except persons confined awaiting trial or detained 
as witnesses; Provided, That any person whose term will ex- 
pire within thirty days shall not be transferred. 



jo Report of Penal Commission 

Thereafter, when any person is convicted in any of the 
said courts of any offense, crime, misdemeanor, or felony, 
murder and voluntary manslaughter excepted, the punish- 
ment of which is or may hereafter be imprisonment in any 
county jail or prison, the said court shall, if sentence of 
imprisonment for thirty days or more be imposed upon such 
person, commit such person to the State industrial farm of 
the district in which said court may have jurisdiction. If 
sentence of imprisonment for more than ten but less than 
thirty days be imposed, the court may in its discretion com- 
mit such person to the State industrial farm for the district. 

Courts of record and courts not of record of the counties 
included in any such district shall hereafter commit to the 
State industrial farm of the district all persons who might 
be lawfully committed to the county jail or prison on charges 
of vagrancy, drunkenness, or disorderly conduct, or for de- 
fault or non-payment of any costs, fine, or penalty, or for 
default in complying with any order of court entered in 
any prosecution for desertion or non-support, where in any 
such case the commitment will be for a period of thirty 
days or more. If the commitment be from ten to thirty 
days the committing authority may in its discretion commit 
any such person to the State industrial farm. 

The superintendent may under the direction of the court 
of quarter sessions remove any inmate to the county jail for 
the unexpired term of his or her term of commitment, 
or to the poorhouse of the proper city or county, or to any 
hospital or lunatic asylum in such county as circumstances 
may require. 

Section io. The cost of transporting any persons com- 
mitted to a State industrial farm shall be paid by the 
county from which the prisoner is committed, and the sheriff 
of the county shall receive the same mileage, and fees for 
prisoners committed to a State industrial farm as are now 
allowed by law for transporting prisoners committed to the 



Report of Penal Commission Ji 

State penitentiaries. When any prisoner is discharged from 
a State industrial farm the superintendent thereof shall pro- 
cure for him a railroad ticket to any point to which said 
prisoner may desire to go not farther from such State in- 
dustrial farm than the point from which he was sentenced, and 
it shall be the duty of the superintendent, or his duly au- 
thorized agent, to accompany the prisoner to the railroad 
station, deliver the ticket to the proper railroad conductor, 
and formally release the prisoner on the train which he takes 
for his destination. 

Section ii. It shall be the purpose of every State in- 
dustrial farm to employ the prisoners committed, or trans- 
ferred thereto, in work on or about the buildings and farm, 
and in growing produce and supplies for its own use, and 
for the other institutions of the Commonwealth, in the prepara- 
tion of road materials and in making brick, tile, paving mat- 
erial, and such other products or materials as may be found 
practicable for the use of the Commonwealth, or any political 
subdivision therein, and in other industries which may be 
approved by the board of managers of the State industrial 
farm and the Committee on Delinquency of this Common- 
wealth. Should any State industrial farm produce supplies 
or materials in excess of its needs and demands, or in ex- 
cess of the demands of the Commonwealth, or of any political 
subdivision thereof, such surplus may be sold by the Com- 
mittee on Delinquency at the prevailing market price. 

Section 12. Any State industrial farm shall make such re- 
ports and keep such accounts as are now or may hereafter 
be required by law, and shall in all such matters be subject 
to the rules and regulations established by the Committee on 
Delinquency. 

Section 13. The original cost of the site and buildings 
of any State industrial farm, and all additions thereto, and 
all fixed overhead charges in conducting the institution, shall 



yz Report of Penal Commission 

be paid by the Commonwealth out of moneys appropriated 
for the purpose by the General Assembly. 

The cost of the care and maintenance of the inmates of 
such institution shall be certified monthly to the counties from 
which inmates shall have been committed. Such cost shall 
be paid by the counties in proportion to the number of days 
spent by the inmates committed from each county. All pay- 
ments shall be on requisition of the board of managers and 
on warrants of the county commissioners countersigned by 
the county controller. 

Section 14. Whenever it shall be found that any State 
industrial farm can accommodate and care for a greater 
number of prisoners, the Committee on Delinquency with 
approval of the Governor may order to be transferred to 
such State industrial farm from the State penitentiaries, or 
from the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory at Huntingdon, 
or from any other State industrial farm such prisoner or 
prisoners as in the opinion of the Committee on Delin- 
quency will be improved in health or in industrial de- 
velopment or otherwise by such transfer. Any prisoner so 
transferred may be returned to the institution from which 
he was transferred whenever the Committee on Delinquency 
after consultation with the board of managers of the State 
industrial farm to which said prisoner may have been trans- 
ferred and with the approval of the Governor shall consider 
such return advisable. 

The cost of transporting any prisoner transferred as pro- 
vided in this section shall be paid out of the moneys appro- 
priated by the General Assembly to the Committee on De- 
linquency. 

The cost of the maintenance and care of any prisoner 
so transferred shall be paid by the county in which he 
shall have been convicted on the basis of the average daily 
charge for maintaining prisoners at the State industrial farm 
to which such prisoner shall have been transferred. 



Report of Penal Commission 73 

Full information respecting the transfer of any prisoner 
or prisoners shall be promptly forwarded by the Committee 
on Delinquency to the proper officials of the county in which 
such prisoner or prisoners have been convicted or sentenced. 

Section 15. All the property real and personal authorized 
to be held by virtue of this act shall be exempt from taxa- 
tion by the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof. 

Section 16. The rules and regulations governing State 
industrial farms shall be uniform and shall be made by the 
Committee on Delinquency. They shall be general in character 
and the respective boards of managers of each institution 
may add local rules not inconsistent with the spirit and sub- 
stance of the regulations adopted by the Committee on De- 
linquency. 

Section 17. To carry out the purposes of this act the sum 
of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000), or so much 
thereof as shall be necessary, is hereby appropriated but not 
more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) shall be expended 
for the purchase and equipment of the State industrial farm 
of any district. 

Section 18. The act approved the twentieth day of July 
one thousand nine hundred and seventeen entitled: — "An Act 
establishing nine county industrial farms, workhouses, and 
reformatories; dividing the State into districts for such pur- 
pose; authorizing the purchase of sites and the erection 
and equipment of buildings and works for such institutions; 
providing for their government and control and for the com- 
mitment, admission, employment, and discharge of inmates; 
providing for an apartment for inebriates and the admission 
and commitment of inmates thereto; imposing the cost of 
maintenance on the inmates in certain cases; imposing the 
cost of the institutions and the maintenance of certain inmates 
on the counties, and conferring certain powers and duties on 
certain county officers," and all other acts and parts of acts 
inconsistent herewith, be and the same are hereby repealed. 



74 Report of Penal Commission 



AN ACT 

Providing for the purchase of a tract of land to be 
used for the benefit of the Eastern Penitentiary; regu- 
lating the operation of the tract and the duties of the 
Secretary of Agriculture, and the Commissioner of 
Forestry, and making an appropriation. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That the Board of Inspectors of the Eastern Penitentiary 
is authorized to purchase a tract of land in eastern Pennsyl- 
vania, containing not less than six hundred or more than twelve 
hundred acres, and suitable for general agriculture, fruit-raising, 
and stock-raising, with provision also for brick making, and the 
preparation of road and paving materials. A tract shall be 
selected which as far as practicable has good railroad drainage, 
sewerage, and water facilities. 

Section 2. Suitable and sufficient buildings shall be erected, 
and the work of constructing buildings, outhouses and other 
structures of any nature, shall so for as practicable be per- 
formed by inmates of the Penitentiary. 

Section 3. The Board shall provide the tract with sufficient 
stock and poultry to aid in carrying out the intent of this act. 

Section 4. In carrying out the purposes of this act, a con- 
tract for performance of work, or furnishing of material, 
which exceeds five hundred dollars shall be let only after ad- 
vertisement and competitive bidding. 

Section 5. The Secretary of Agriculture shall provide from 
time to time, when requested by the Board, competent experts in 



Report of Penal Commission 75 

agriculture under whose supervision and counsel the tract of 
land shall be operated. The Commissioner of Forestry shall 
likewise on request provide experts in forestry to counsel and 
supervise as aforesaid. 

Section 6. In addition to the agricultural work herein pro- 
vided for, the inmates may be employed at other occupations 
and trades. 

Section 7. The tract of land herein provided for shall be 
operated for the benefit of the Penitentiary, and with an aim to 
develop to the highest degree the mental, moral, and physical 
qualities of the inmates of the Penitentiary. So far as practi- 
cable the tract shall be operated by the inmates of the institu- 
tion, who may be removed to the tract in the discretion and 
under the regulations of the Board. 

Section 8. To carry out the purposes of this act the sum 
of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much 
thereof as may be necessary, is hereby specifically appropriated. 
Payment of such moneys shall be on requisition of the Board 
and on warrant of the Auditor General. 



j6 Report of Penal Commission 



AN ACT 

Prohibiting fees or allowances and contracts for fur- 
nishing meals to the inmates of penal, correctional, or 
reformatory institutions, owned, or managed and con- 
trolled by the Commonwealth, or any political subdivi- 
sion thereof, and providing for, and regulating the 
purchase of foodstuffs, and other materials necessary 
for furnishing meals to such inmates and the prepara- 
tion thereof. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That from and after the approval of this act, it shall be 
unlawful for the Commonwealth or any political subdivision 
thereof or the board of inspectors, managers, trustees, or other 
officers of any penal, correctional, or reformatory institution, 
owned, or managed and controlled by the Commonwealth, or 
any political subdivision thereof, to enter into a contract with 
the warden, superintendent, or other officer in charge of any 
such institution, or with any other person, agreeing to pay to 
such warden, superintendent or other officer or person a fixed 
price per meal or per day, week, month, or year, for meals fur- 
nished to the inmates of any such institution. 

Section 2. All fees and allowances to the sheriff, or other 
officer, or officers, of any county, or other political subdivision 
thereof, or to any warden, superintendent, or other officer, or 
officers, of any penal, correctional, or reformatory institution, 
owned, or managed and controlled by the Commonwealth, or 
any political subdivision thereof, for supplying meals to the in- 
mates of such institution are hereby abolished and declared un- 
lawful; Provided, That this section shall not affect the fees or 
allowances of any sheriff, warden, superintendent, or other of- 
ficer now in office, or employed, during the term for which he 



Report of Penal Commission 77 

shall have been elected, appointed, or employed, as the case 
may be. 

Section 3. All food stuffs and other materials required to 
supply meals to the inmates of penal, correctional, and reform- 
atory institutions, owned, or managed and controlled by the 
Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, shall be 
purchased, and paid for as other supplies required for use in such 
institutions are purchased and paid for, and all meals for such 
inmates shall be prepared and served by persons employed for 
the purpose at such weekly, monthly, or annual compensation, 
as the authorities in charge of such institutions shall prescribe; 
Provided, That all contracts for furnishing foodstuffs or other 
materials required to supply meals to such inmates involving an 
expenditure of more than one hundred dollars shall be awarded 
to the lowest satisfactory bidder after public advertisement in 
at least two newspapers of general circulation in the political 
subdivision in which the institution requiring such foodstuffs 
or materials is located. 

Section 4. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are 
hereby repealed. 



y8 Report of Penal Commission 



AN ACT 

Amending section six of an act entitled "An act 
authorizing the release on probation of certain con- 
victs, instead of imposing sentences; the appointment 
of probation and parole officers, and the payment of 
their salaries and expenses; regulating the manner of 
sentencing convicts in certain cases, and providing for 
their release on parole; their conviction of crime dur- 
ing parole, and their re-arrest and conviction for breach 
of parole; and extending the powers and duties of 
boards of prison inspectors of penitentiaries," approved 
the nineteenth day of June one thousand nine hundred 
eleven, by providing that the minimum sentence shall 
in no case exceed one-third of the maximum sentence. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That section six of an act approved the nineteenth day 
of June one thousand nine hundred and eleven (Pamphlet 
Laws one thousand and fifty-five) entitled, "An act authoriz- 
ing the release on probation of certain convicts, instead of im- 
posing sentences; the appointment of probation and parole of- 
ficers, and the payment of their salaries and expenses; regulat- 
ing the manner of sentencing convicts in certain cases, and 
providing for their release on parole; their conviction of crime 
during parole, and their re-arrest and reconviction for breach 
of parole; and extending the powers and duties of boards of 
prison inspectors of penitentiaries," which reads as follows : 

"Section 6. Whenever any person, convicted in any court 
of this Commonwealth of any crime, shall be sentenced to im- 
prisonment in any penitentiary of the State, the court, instead 
of pronouncing upon such convict a definite or fixed term of 
imprisonment, shall pronounce upon such convict a sentence of 
imprisonment for an indefinite term, stating in such sentence 
the minimum and maximum limits thereof; and the maximum 



Report of Penal Commission 79 

limit shall never exceed the maximum time now or hereafter 
prescribed as a penalty for such offense: Provided, That no 
persons sentenced for an indeterminate term shall be entitled to 
any benefits under the act, entitled "An Act providing for the 
commutation of sentences for good behavior of convicts in 
prisons, penitentiaries, workhouses, and county jails in this 
State, and regulations governing the same," approved the elev- 
enth day of May, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred 
and one," is hereby amended to read as follows: 

Section 6. Whenever any person convicted in any court of 
this Commonwealth of any crime, shall be sentenced to impris- 
onment for a period exceeding one year in any penitentiary or 
other institution of this Commonwealth, or in any county or 
municipal institution, the court, instead of pronouncing upon 
such convict a definite or fixed term of imprisonment, shall pro- 
nounce upon such convict a sentence of imprisonment for an 
indefinite term : stating in such sentence the minimum and 
maximum limits thereof; and the maximum limit thereof shall 
never exceed the maximum time now or hereafter prescribed 
as a penalty for such offense, and the minimum limit shall never 
exceed one-third of the maximum sentence prescribed by any 
court: Provided, That any convict in the State Penitentiaries 
who is now serving under a sentence or sentences imposed after 
the thirtieth day of June, Anno Domini one thousand nine hun- 
dred and eleven, may when he or she shall have served one- 
third of such maximum sentence or sentences, be eligible to 
parole under the provisions and subject to the conditions of the 
act to which this is an amendment. And provided, further, 
That no person sentenced for an indeterminate term shall be en- 
titled to any benefits under the act entitled, "An act providing 
for the commutation of sentences for good behavior of convicts 
in prisons, penitentiaries, workhouses, and county jails in this 
State, and regulations governing the same," approved the elev- 
enth day May, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and 
one. 



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